Birthday Surprises
by katrin87
Summary: Sequel to Stronger. Ranger and Moxie got engaged and haven't told anyone yet. Ranger's POV We're getting to the real action now. Ranger and Moxie ship out again.
1. Chapter 1

_Don't own them, don't make any money and I promise to return them unharmed but with broadened horizons. No copyright infringement intended! _

_**Warning**: There will be a healthy dose of **smut** and there's gonna be talk and use of **sex toys**. A lot of different sex toys. They're mentioned at one time, but most of them will be used later on. And yes, there will be plot, although it might not seem like it at first. There will also be offensive **language**, there's going to be **violence**, and I guess a warning for **angst** is in order too. That should cover everything._

_For all those who are wondering, this story was supposed to be a oneshot. I got the idea while chatting with Annie (Thanks, Babe), but when I got down to writing it, my muse decided she wanted more. First she wanted a prologue to the oneshot and then she wanted a continuation and in the end it turned out to be the continuation of Stronger. You know how it is. So here I am. Enjoy!_

_To understand this story you should read Stronger first, but it's not absolutely necessary. Just know that Steph is tough as nails now ;)_

_Huge thanks goes to Mud, who agreed to beta for me. Thank you, Mud!_

**Birthday Surprises**

**By Katrin Gilbert**

Previously

Steph went to Mexico to get training. Before she left Trenton, she broke up with Joe Morelli and then came over to talk to me. When I escorted her to pack what she'd need we professed our love for each other and have been a couple ever since.

She came back after a little over six months, stronger than ever. She actually surprised me with her arrival, but that wasn't the only surprise she had for me. We had welcomed her home with a big party and slowly I started to discover what had changed. She was carrying more hardware than I or my men did, and she knew how to use it. I was so damn proud of her. And when she came back she came to live with me.

She ended up with a contract with the government identical to mine, and the day we talked about it she did her first job for RangeMan. In the process she saved my life and that of eight innocents. I was injured as well as Lester, but we pulled through. We had been set up by one of my employees and Steph discovered who it was and then took care of it.

About six weeks later, we left for our first government job together, but it wasn't the first mission for Steph, or Moxie, as the street and the government knows her now. She went on one with the guys that trained her. We were shipped out and were to extract a hostage and break up the group that held her. We got out with a few cuts and scrapes, but Moxie reacted allergic to the bite of some tropic mosquito. It was touch and go for a while, but she was fine after a few days.

When we got back Steph had a few problems adjusting to civilian life again, made harder by the problems Joe Morelli and her sister Valerie Kloughn were throwing her way. But she managed them like a pro. Everyone here at RangeMan helped her with it, especially her partner Lil and me. And we were all so damn proud of her.

Since then she's been training her niece Mary Alice in self-defense, who in turn taught her mom, sister and some of her friends. Lula, a good friend of Steph, also received help from Moxie. Being a bounty hunter, Moxie taught her take down techniques and has been backing her up whenever she needed it.

After that she worked at RangeMan, catching skips, doing surveillance and security work, whatever we needed. In every free minute she had, she's been taking my men and me down to the gun range to show us how to throw knives and darts. It had been a major factor in the success of our mission, but she'd been the only one comfortable to throw them, so she had decided to teach us.

And now, only a few months later, she made me the happiest mercenary on earth. However, I'm not the only one to benefit from her. She made us into a group, we help and support each other now, not just work together. And it helped my company as well. We're more effective, have fewer injuries. And we all love her for it, although I hope my guys love her like a sister, because I'm the only one who's supposed to love her like I do.

Chapter 1

I woke with a smile. Stephanie was draped all over me, sleeping soundly. A brief glance at my alarm clock confirmed my suspicions. It was 9.30, way past the time when we normally woke up, but the night had been tiring. For the both of us.

I'd prepared a romantic dinner, with music and candles, even dessert. Then I'd asked her _the_ question. And she'd said yes. The rest of the evening and most of the night was spent making love. No wonder I had slept so long.

I knew that I was grinning like a fool, but all my dreams had finally come true. Stephanie was going to be mine. We hadn't talked about the when and where yet, but I was all for eloping. That was a decision we would make together, so we'd see.

Today though, was my birthday. Stephanie didn't know this; I didn't want her to waste money for some unnecessary gift. Her answer the night before was the best gift she could have given me.

_Smut ahead. Skip down to "RSRS" to avoid_

It was time to get the day started, so I went to wake Steph up, shifting my hips from side to side. Stephanie didn't wake up but the movement made me hard. Damn. So I had to resort to tickling her. She woke up, but her wiggling all over the place made it even worse for me.

She looked down at me with a blinding smile on her lips. She shifted her hips a little more and before I could say anything she pushed down onto me, welcoming me into her heat.

"Morning, Ric."

I didn't dare to move. I wanted to see what she had in mind so I settled for "Morning, Babe."

She rolled her hips a little, making me groan. I wanted to take over, but this was her show. She rolled her hips again and then suddenly sat up, driving me deep into her.

"Babe."

She had a mischievous glint in her eyes and I knew she was up to something. I drew my legs up to support her back and she leaned back against them. She planted her soles firmly on the bed, spreading her wide, opening her to my gaze.

"Ric. Lay back and watch. And keep your hands to yourself."

I did as she told me, trying to get comfortable, but what she did next totally surprised me. She started by touching her breasts, tugging at her nipples, manipulating them until they stood out proudly. Satisfied with the job she had done she slowly moved her hands over her stomach down to her womanhood teasing her own flesh along the way.

She moved the tips of her fingers to her opening, caressing me as well, before settling in on her clit.

She traced circles around it, moaning with pleasure. Her hips were moving in circles, driving me crazy. And the whole time she was keeping eye contact. I wanted to grab her hips to thrust up into her, but I was enjoying what she was doing too much to interrupt her. It didn't happen often that she let herself go like this, so free of inhibitions and self-doubts.

Her left hand moved back to her breast, tugging on her nipple again, while she sped up the circles on her clit. She was moaning loudly and the bucking of her hips had me groaning alongside her.

It didn't take long before she shot off, driving herself over the edge and from the looks of it into a powerful orgasm. She threw her head back and screamed my name, the most beautiful sound on this earth. The clenching of her muscles had me fighting for control. When she came down a little she kept moving her hips. She reached around and took my balls into her hand, stimulating them while riding me. It didn't take long and she had pushed me over the edge and I was yelling her name hoarsely.

We were both breathing hard and it took a while to calm our breathing.

Stephanie was glowing. She'd never looked more beautiful to me. It seemed like she had enjoyed her naughty performance. I sure had.

_RSRS_

It didn't help. We had to get up or we would never get out of bed. That's when the phone on the bedside table rang. It was an internal line, so it had to be one of the guys.

"Yo."

"Yo, man." It was Tank.

"Report."

"We have a line on Kemaru. He's supposed to be at the Liberty Ballroom tonight." We had two more weeks to get him, but I would be more than happy to get him back into the system as soon as possible.

"What time?"

"Heard around 8.30."

"Schedule the meeting for 7, so that we're in place at 8."

I hung up. I had better things to do than chatting with Tank. Taking care of my fiancée for example.

"Come on, Babe. We've to get up. You up for distraction tonight?"

"Sure. When, where, who, what?"

I had to grin. She had learned a lot since she'd gone to Mexico to get training. "Meeting at 7, Liberty Ballroom, Kemaru, short and sexy. And he was driving around with enough drugs that the charges were intent to sell.

"Okay, what's the plan for the day?"

"You're free to do as you want. I've got meetings the whole afternoon, so maybe you'd like to go shopping?" I could have never imagined how much stuff this woman possessed. Sure, I'd seen it when we put her junk in storage, but I never thought it would be that much. And it had only gotten worse, but I definitely appreciated her large lingerie collection. And I knew that every trip to the mall meant a trip to Victoria's Secret, which would lead to a round of modeling later on.

"Good. I'm gonna take Mare with me. I haven't seen her much lately."

I knew why. The reason was me. We'd monopolized a lot of each others time since we'd come back from our first mission together about two months ago, but she wasn't complaining and neither was I.

"What about Lil?"

"He's got to catch up on paperwork."

"Want me to call Ella to bring up some brunch?"

"Nope. I'm gonna eat at the mall with Mare.

"Babe. That stuff will kill you."

She got up which caused me to plop out of her. She grinned and scurried into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. She knew that that wouldn't stop me, but I knew that if I followed her I'd be late for my meetings.

After 45 minutes she finally emerged from the bathroom and I had to grin. She had tamed her hair as much as possible and had applied her make up, but was running around only in a towel. She slipped into the dressing room and I made my way through the bathroom. It already smelled like Bulgari. Ella had tried to introduce Steph to some other shower gel, but she had refused. And boy I was glad she did. I loved the smell that was uniquely Steph, mixed with a hint of Bulgari. It was undeniably sexy.

I went through my morning routine, which took me all of 10 minutes, dressed, and met Steph in the kitchen. She was sitting at the breakfast bar, drinking coffee and talking to Mary Lou on her cell, arranging their shopping trip.

I went over to drop a kiss on her lips, gathered my keys and gun, and left the apartment. She knew the schedule for the day and these conversations with Mary Lou could take forever. Besides, I was sure she would drop into my office before she left. That had become our ritual. When either one of us left the building we always stopped to let the other know where we were going.

I settled in to do some paperwork. The monthly reports needed to be reviewed, a part of being the boss that wasn't something I enjoyed. Steph thankfully took a lot of paperwork out of all our hands nowadays, but there were still things I needed to do myself.

Half an hour later Steph came sauntering in, a sexy swing to her hips and a smile on her face that screamed satisfied. I thought it amusing that you could tell with one glance at her if she had had sex or not. Steph considered it downright embarrassing. She had to deal with it though, as I left that expression on her face nearly every day.

She came over and took a seat on the edge of my desk, right in front of me.

"You driving yourself?"

"Nope. Mare's gonna pick me up. Before you ask, I've got the tracker in my purse and the panic button is stashed in the front pocket of my jeans. I'll call you if I'm in trouble or need help. And I'm carrying. Not as much as usual, but still." She looked at me with her big innocent eyes, batting her lashes. She was actually cute when she did that. Not that I would ever tell her, because she could be hard as nails if the situation called for it. Nobody messed with Moxie these days. I pulled her on my lap to kiss her goodbye. When we came up for air we were both breathless and Steph had a slightly dazed look on her face.

I pushed her up so she was standing and gave her a slap on her butt, steering her towards the door.

"Go, or you'll be late. The last time you were late she got all kinds of information out of Hal. You know he has no resistance when it comes to woman."

She was laughing when she left the office. The last time Mary Lou had given him the third degree Hal had been jumpy and irritate. I had had no idea what was going on until I'd had enough and called him into the office, asking him. He told me that Mary Lou had asked him a lot of private questions, innocent ones at first, about his family and friends. But then she had gone in for the kill and had asked him really private questions, about girlfriends and his sex life in general. He had even had trouble being around Steph after that. She noticed it, sat him down and explained the inner workings of Burg wives. Boy was I glad I would never get a Burg wife. Sure, Steph would be my wife, but we couldn't possibly be any further from that of life.

I settled back down to finish the paperwork when I was interrupted by Tank. He walked in like he owned the place and settled down in one of the chairs in front of my desk.

"Yo, man."

I just raised an eyebrow at him. He took a moment to study me and then broke out into a massive grin.

"Man, I can't believe it. You finally asked her?"

"Yes." I knew that I had to look goofy with a big stupid grin that broke out over my face at the mere mentioning of the topic.

"When's the wedding?" He looked like a kid in a candy shop.

"We haven't talked about it yet. We've been ... busy."

"Busy? You bet. From the look on Bombshell's face I would say you've been busy celebrating. She couldn't have gotten more than four or five hours of sleep."

"Time flies when you're having fun. Was there a reason you came in?"

"Just saw the rock on her finger. Congrats, Ric, I'm happy for the both of you. Took you long enough to admit that you love her."

"You don't need to remind me."

That caused Tank to chuckle. It had taken him, Bobby and Lester a lot of work to get my head out off my ass. It had been annoying as hell, but I was thankful. Not that I would ever tell them.

"You all set for tonight?"

"What's the plan?"

"You go in with Steph, posing as a couple. We'll cover the takedown."

"Good."

I hadn't exactly dismissed him, but Tank stood and left, leaving me with the paperwork. I worked straight through lunch, only going into the break room to get some water and two apples. I preferred to do the paperwork in one go, so it was over.

Steph came back around 6, coming directly into my office.

"Yo."

"Yo, yourself."

"Where are your bags? You can't tell me you didn't buy anything?"

She was smiling. I loved it when she was happy. That was the way I wanted her always to be. "Nope, Tank, Lester and Bobby are carrying them up to the apartment as we speak." She quipped.

"The three of them?"

"There was a sale at Macy's in the shoe department. So did Victoria's Secret." When she mentioned lingerie I knew I would forgive her everything. She also knew it. I had told her once that I have no problem with her maxing out my credit cards, as long as there was some lingerie somewhere on the list.

"You up for some modeling?"

"Nope. I've got to get ready for the distraction tonight. What about when we come back?" The modeling was my favorite part of shopping. Shopping was okay, but we had been caught once in the dressing rooms at Macy's, so now we had to be careful. Modeling in the apartment was much more fun anyway.

She gave me a kiss and was off. I finished the paperwork and followed her up. When I entered the bathroom she'd already finished her shower and was now fighting against her hair, trying to get it into a sexy up-do. I left her be and took my shower, knowing that we didn't have much time. I toweled down and went to get dressed choosing slacks and a silk shirt.

When Steph was finally ready, she looked stunning. She was wearing a backless purple dress, which showed off her tassei tattoo nicely. Not too dark, a strong color for August. And it looked great. She'd done her eyes smoky. And from the looks of it she was wearing thigh highs with her FMP. I bet she was even carrying a gun somewhere in a thigh holster.

"You ready to go, Babe?"

She looked up from her purse and smiled. "Yup, just need to finish packing my purse and I'm set."

Task completed, we headed down to the conference room to go over the plans for the evening.

Plans settled we drove over in the Turbo. She loved this car and I was thinking that maybe we could change locations after the takedown and go dancing.

I pulled into the parking lot and noticed some familiar cars, but thought nothing off it. With a last kiss I got out of the car, going around to help Steph out. She was grinning at me, but it wasn't her I-love-you-smile, it was more like a I-know-something-you-don't-smile.

We walked in and what I saw totally surprised me. There was a huge banner hanging with 'Happy Birthday, Ranger' on it. Steph was chuckling beside me.

"You?"

She was laughing too hard to answer but I had to know.

"How?"

She got herself together and answered me. "I saw your driver's license in your wallet when I took out the credit card. You remember when I lost mine? I wasn't exactly snooping, but you know, I had to satisfy my curiosity." There we went with the puppy dog eyes again.

"How did you manage to pull it off and keep it a secret?" I looked around. My family was standing there, hers was in attendance, as well as all of my friends and a lot of hers as well. Even Mooner and Dougie were around somewhere, there laughing giving them away.

"I had the help of Tank, Lester, Lil and Bobby. Oh, and Ella played a major roll in the preparations. She managed food and stuff like decorations and invitations. You know, everything I have no idea how to do, but Ella loves." She jumped into my arms and kissed me like there was no tomorrow. "Happy Birthday, Batman."

When she turned around to the crowd they started singing 'Happy Birthday'. Sally's band was playing the melody to it, and he actually was in jeans.

When they were finished everyone came up to congratulate me, an endless stream of well-wishers had nearly stopped when Mrs. Plum, no, Ellen, spotted the engagement ring on her daughter's hand.

"Oh my God, you're getting married." She screamed so everyone could hear her. Unfortunately, that started the interrogation.

"When did he ask you? When are you getting married? Should I book the hall of the Knights of Columbus? Who's going to be your maid of honor." She was shooting all this questions at Steph without even giving her a chance to get in some answers. It was like someone had started a tape.

"Stop!" Steph bellowed, stopping her mother's rant effectively. "He asked me yesterday evening and we haven't talked about it yet. And now let's just enjoy the party."

Truer words had never been spoken, but it started another round of well wishes, this time for the both of us. By the time my men reached us, Steph was in tears, but smiling like she had won the world. Looking around the room I could see that a lot of her girlfriends were in tears. Mary Lou had been one of the first to congratulate us and she had immediately started crying. Experience with Steph told me that all the tears cried at the moment were happy tears, so I didn't have to worry.

When we finally had made it through the congratulations, Steph dragged me over to a table with a big sheet cake on it. Someone had gotten hold of my baby pictures, so a copy of it topped the cake. I was sure that it was Steph's idea, as well as the thirty-three candles on top of the cake, which weren't lit yet.

"I think it's time for the presents," Grandma Mazur announced. And she came walking towards us, followed by Lester and Bobby, who were carrying a huge cardboard box with a big black bow around it. Tank and Lil brought up the rear, big grins on their faces. I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach, but there was nothing I could do. The guys placed the box on the table and I turned around to it, Steph right beside me the whole time. My guests tried to get as close around the table as possible. I looked around. Everyone was waiting for me to open it. Especially Grandma Mazur.

"Come on, open it." She urged. And the bad feeling in my stomach got only worse.

Thankfully Steph was standing right beside me, peering into the box with me. From her gasp I knew that I wasn't hallucinating. It looked like Grandma Mazur and the rest of my core team had bought everything Trenton's one and only adult toyshop had to offer.

"What's in it?" Sally wanted to know, so I pulled each item out of the box, displaying it for everyone to see.

_Please let me know what you think!_


	2. Chapter 2

Birthday Surprises

by Katrin

_Warning: The whole chapter revolves around **sex toys** and **smut**! Don't read if this kind of thing offends you!_

Chapter 2

First item I had to pull out was an enormous box of condoms. Closer inspection revealed that they were of the extra large variety, but also in all colors available and flavored. Grandma Mazur was cackling with glee.

The next item had me smiling. It was the Kama Sutra. We had talked about buying one, but we would have done it via the Internet. From Steph's groan I knew that she was embarrassed to no end, I didn't have to look at her face. I took her hand and squeezed it to reassure her before continuing with my task.

In a bag I found a large assortment of massage oils and lube. This was actually something we could have fun with. We loved to give each other massages, so we would find a use for it. When I looked closer I saw that a few of them were the ones which heated up after applied. That would be fun. Steph actually smiled at me and from the look in her eyes I could tell that she already had a plan on how to use them.

"Come on, take out the next one." It was Hal, wanting to know what else was in the box.

I took the next item out and found it to be a harness like you would use for climbing, only that it had some extra straps. I was at a loss, but Tank happily helped out.

"That's the harness of a sex swing. The swing stand is already put up in your apartment." Grandma Mazur looked really happy with her announcement. I had always though about testing one with Steph, but had never asked her. I was sure we would be testing it before too long.

Next I pulled out a vibrator and a strap-on dildo. Not my idea of fun, but it could have been worse. Such as the next little bound package I pulled out, containing a ballgag, nipple clips, leather restraints for arms and legs, a collar with a leash as well as a whip. Seemed to me like Edna was into domination. Ellen gasped and crossed herself, while the crowd was cheering, enjoying my discomfort.

A blindfold came out next. That wasn't too bad, we had experimented with blindfolding before and Steph had thoroughly enjoyed it. This time she squeezed my hand, letting me know that she had loved this experience as much as I had, wanting to repeat it again.

I now was actually curious what else they had found, when I pulled out the anal beads and butt plugs in various sizes and different shapes. I had some experience with them, but Steph always was firmly against it. We would talk about it and she could decide whether she wanted to try them or not. I would never pressure her to do it.

Steph took over for me, pulling out edible underwear. I knew that my men were in for some serious punishment, but I could never hurt Edna or Steph would cut off my balls. The box was almost empty and I just hoped that there wouldn't be too much more in it.

Next thing Steph pulled out were Ben Wa Balls and she actually blushed a little darker, something I would have never thought possible. She didn't wait long and pulled out the next little box. A cock ring. A remote controlled vibrating cock ring. By the glint in her eyes I could tell that she fully intended to use it.

I took it from there, revealing body paint next. It was chocolate flavored, so Steph would have some fun with it. We loved to experiment with whipped cream and chocolate and stuff and even I ate some on occasions like that. Steph took the sheets more than once to the Laundromat to spare her the embarrassment she thought Ella might bring her. Ella would never say a word about it, but it was the Burg manners she had learned from her mother, never realizing that she was cutting Steph's wings. It had taken some time, but Steph was a lot freer, more open now. Open to new things we had both enjoyed very much.

I had to root around in the big box to find the last item. When I pulled it out I was pleasantly surprised. It was a vibrating butterfly, complete with straps, and I fully intended her to wear it. I was glad that the box was finally empty and began piling everything in, leaving the butterfly at the top and in easy reach.

Task completed, Hal stepped forward, presenting me with a manila folder. "This is from the rest of us, as well as both of your families. Have fun."

We opened the folder together and its contents had Steph gasp. They had gotten us a month long cruise in the Caribbean. It was in the best suite of the ship, complete with all the amenities you could think off. It was perfect. When I looked at the date I saw that we would be away over Steph's birthday. That would save her a lot of headache.

I looked over at Steph, raising an eyebrow. I hadn't figured out yet what she was giving me. She understood my silent question and leaned up to whisper it in my ear. "Your present is waiting at home for you. Didn't think our parents would approve." That had me grinning. Surprises like that were always great.

I was moved that they had thought of something special to give me. All my men stood in a half circle behind Hal, showing their loyalty. I looked at every single one of them, trying to pick out the one who had taken care of the date, when my eyes rested on Hector. He was smiling; something you rarely saw. It had gotten more frequent since Steph had come into all our lives. She had started teaching him English. Her Spanish was really good, thanks to TK and his guys. She knew how hard it could be to learn a foreign language, so she was the best choice for teaching him. She was surprisingly patient with him and he got steadily better. Just like one of my guys has been helping her with French.

"Thanks for arranging this for me. I came out here today, expecting to do a takedown, but what I found was so much better. And thanks for all the gifts.. I'm sure that we're both going to enjoy them."

My guests started clapping, only to be interrupted by Lula. "What are you talking about, Batman. You ain't finished yet."

They had another box, similar to the one Edna had brought, although a lot smaller. Connie took over from Lula. "Now we now that you're a health freak, but your meals just can't be only healthy. What about the fat and sugar? You need those, so we thought we might help the change of your diet a little along.

I opened the box to find an assortment of Tastykakes, as well as chocolate and syrup, but there was also an envelope in it. Opening it I found a dozen gift certificates for Ben & Jerry's. That was a gift Steph would thoroughly enjoy, but Lula stopped that thought before I could even finish it.

"Steph, you ain't eating that. That's for Batman, not for you. You eat it anyways but we need to convert him." Steph busted out laughing beside me and I couldn't help but chuckle at Lula's statement. She didn't know that I was eating ice cream when I could lick it off of Steph and I would never tell her.

I thanked them again when Ella announced that dinner was ready, so we headed over to the buffet to get something to eat. There was something for everyone. Nearly free of fat and low on cholesterol for me and some of my men and food dripping in grease for Steph and her felons. Steph still ate healthy most of the time but on occasions like this she went for the grease, but would extent her workout the next day.

We made a plate for each of us and brought them back to our table. Before Steph could even attempt to sit down I pulled her away with me, towards the bathroom. What she hadn't seen was that I had grabbed the butterfly in passing and I fully intended for her to wear it.

Finally in the lady's room I locked the door behind us and pushed her up against the wall, kissing her hard and demanding. When I let up I showed her the butterfly and my voice was husky when I asked her to put it on. "Put it on for me, please?"

"One condition."

"Name it." That's when she showed me the vibrating cock ring. I had no idea how she had managed to smuggle it back here with her, but her smug grin let me know what she was thinking. She was enjoying it to torture me. The sight of the cock ring and the knowledge that Steph was willing to be playful with me made my cock instantly hard. I crushed her to me and my lips descended on hers, devouring her. I couldn't get enough of the taste of her, but I knew that we had guests out there. They would soon notice that we were missing. Pulling away from Steph I looked into her glazed eyes and waited until she was a little more coherent before I said "We'd better hurry, or they'll send the search party out for us."

"What about the ring?" She wasn't willing to let it go.

"Okay. You put it on me, and I'll put the butterfly on you." She went first, slowly unzipping my pants to reveal my hard cock. She firmly grasped it in her hand, stroking up and down a little, making me even harder. She had the ring already prepared when she took the tip of my cock into her mouth, sucking on it. I was really close to loosing control and she knew it, so she just slipped the ring on before I could take her against the wall and made sure it fit snug around the base of my cock. She pressed a last kiss to the head and stood, tucking the control into the lacy top of her thigh high.

"You taste so good. I can't wait to get you home so I can suck you until you come." Her grin told me that she wanted me at least as much as I wanted her, but we had to get back before someone would be looking for us, finding us like this. For good measure she gave it a little buzz.

"Your turn, Babe." I backed her up against the wall and kissed her quickly, pulling away before it could get too serious. I pushed her dress up around her waist, only to find panties that showed more than they covered. I pulled them down a little, making enough space to put the butterfly on. Before I did so I teased her clit with my finger a little, moving around it and than back and forth between her clit and her opening, spreading the wetness I found there. She was fucking wet and I couldn't do anything about it. I gave her clit another tug and settled on placing the butterfly, securing it in place. I pulled her panties back up and tugged her a little away from the wall so she could arrange her dress.

"You okay, Babe? Uncomfortable, or is it okay?" I gave her a buzz and she jumped. I don't know if it was because of the sensation or because of the surprise.

"Sure, let's go. I'm hungry." She checked herself in the mirror and we finally made our way back to our guests.

When we exited the bathroom I eased the vibration up and Steph followed suit. I was leading her back to our table, my arm around her waist. Tank threw us a suspicious glance. He knew that we had been up to something, although his thoughts were probably running in a more concrete direction. Steph claimed it to be ESP, in reality it was just the years of training and working together that had us picking up on each others slightest change in expression and we usually knew how to interpret it. Besides that, we just knew how the other thought and acted. I shot Tank a warning glance and he thankfully kept quiet.

I pulled Steph's chair out for her and when she was seated I sat. Before I started eating I activated Steph's butterfly, setting it on a slow pulsing. I knew that it would drive her crazy, but it wouldn't be enough to bring her to climax.

Steph had activated my cock ring as well, setting it on a light vibration. It was driving me nuts and all my thoughts were about dragging her off to take her, no matter if anyone would see us..

As dinner continued Steph started squirming in her seat, that and the heat in her eyes told me how close she really was, I had a hard time to keep control over my body's reaction as well.

When it'd only take her another minute to orgasm I stopped the butterfly and her hand clamped down on my thigh nearly painfully, letting me know she hadn't appreciated the loss of stimulation.

Stopping the butterfly caused her to give me a rest as well, but I appreciated it. It prevented me from embarrassing myself in front of my entire family and employees.

The rest of dinner went by with pleasant conversation. Sally and his band had kept up a stream of soft background music throughout dinner, but now they picked up in speed and volume.

It was time to eat the cake. Someone had lit all the candles and Steph pulled me over. She knew I wasn't into cake, but I knew I'd have to eat some tonight. I could always feed the rest to Steph. She had me blow out the candles while they were clapping and cheering. Ella handed me a knife and Steph was helping me cut the cake. From the shiver that ran through her I knew that I wasn't the only one to whom it felt like one of the rituals you go through on your wedding day. I lifted a piece of cake on a plate for us and Steph fed me, enjoying that I tried to eat as little as possible. After a few bites she took pity on me and with a lot of laughing let me feed her the rest of our piece. After that Ella cut the cake and gave everyone some. I had to admit, it tasted rather good, but it was just one of those principles I had.

We milled around, talking with my guests, laughing and joking, just having fun. Steph was right beside me the entire time; my arm firmly attached to her waist.

Every time someone said "Ranger" or "Ric" I gave her a buzz, only to feel the responding vibration around my cock a moment later. We were driving each other nuts, but I enjoyed it. At the beginning of our relationship Steph would have never participated in this little game, too afraid to embarrass someone, most likely herself. She'd gotten a lot more confident.

When we had talked to everyone at least once we finally made it onto the dance floor. Sally and his band had switched to Salsa, something I didn't know they were playing, and the beat was sexy, just the way I liked it. I pulled Steph close to me, positioning her so that my thigh was between her legs, pressing against her center and against the butterfly. I had activated the butterfly again to a vibration and it was driving both of us nuts. The vibration running through my leg gave me all kinds of ideas, none of them suitable when you've got guests around. Thankfully Steph only gave me the occasional buzz or I might have sat her on the next table and taken her right then and there.

Dancing usually had an extremely arousing effect on us, the music, the rubbing against each other, everything. We loved to dance and since we had gotten together I had taught her all the dances I knew and loved. She was a natural, picking the steps up really quickly and she was dancing like she had never done anything else in her life. We preferred to dance in private though, as it usually didn't take long until we started kissing and caressing each other, leading to another round of love making. Dancing while wearing the vibration devices was something else though and I was sure we'd repeat it sometime soon in private.

This time we had to be careful, had to control ourselves, but I knew Steph couldn't hold on much longer. I looked at her and had to smile. Her eyes were a dark, sparkling blue, telling me exactly just how aroused she was, her lips slightly parted and her breath was coming in short gasps.

We continued dancing, but I pulled her even tighter against me, adding extra pressure on the butterfly. She started rubbing herself against me and a few moments later she came. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, when she gave herself over to the pleasure, regardless of the people who were around us, who might be watching us.

The heat in her eyes spoke volumes of what I was in for once we got home. She was trembling in my arms, my arms around her waist the only thing keeping her from falling down. Her legs never were steady after an orgasm.

I had been entirely focused on Steph, so when I looked up I saw that everyone was standing in a circle around us, watching us. Our friends were grinning and my parents seemed to be okay, at least as far as I could tell. Frank seemed to be amused; he knew how much I loved his daughter. I had actually gone over to ask him for his permission to marry his daughter and he had been great about it. From the looks of it Grandma Mazur thought it was a pip that we were getting it on on the dance floor. Ellen would be something different entirely. When I caught a good look at her face I tensed. Steph must have noticed it and looked up, looking around, taking it all in.

"Oh shit." Her face immediately flamed red, the embarrassment written all over her face.

"Yeah." I felt guilty for putting that look on her beautiful face, for embarrassing in front of our friends and families. And I was sure it showed in my voice. "I'm so sorry, Babe. I didn't mean to embarrass you. You were so beautiful when you were getting close, the pleasure so evident in your face." I had pulled her close again, whispering into her ear so only she could hear me.

"Don't be sorry, I enjoyed it and did nothing to stop you, so it's my fault as well." She was whispering just as softly. "But we're going to have to talk to my mom."

I agreed and guided her off the dance floor, over to Ellen, who started immediately in at her, never giving me or the people around her who were all watching her a second thought.

"How could you embarrass me in front of all these people, in front of your in-laws? What did you think you were doing? Did you want them to get the impression that you're a nympho? That you can't control yourself? Jesus, Stephanie, what were you thinking?"

Ellen hadn't noticed it yet, but we had guided her away from the party into the backstage area. There was no need to embarrass her even further by letting her rant in front of all the people they had invited.

_Please let me know what you think!_


	3. Chapter 3

Birthday Surprises

by Katrin

Warning: If you don't like to read smut, you should stop reading when they leave the party!

Chapter 3

"Mom, just because you met Ric's parents for the first time tonight doesn't mean that I've never met them before. And don't you think that if anyone was to be embarrassed it should be us and not you? We were the ones practically having sex on the dance floor, not you."

At that Ellen blushed, took a deep breath and continued before Steph could get another word in. "What will the neighbors think? They'll think I didn't raise you properly. Do you have any idea what you did to me?"

"Mom, just stop it. I'm above what the neighbors think what the Burg thinks. Mom, that's just not me. Why can't you just be happy for us? And what we were doing was actually a civilized version of the dancing we normally do. We can hardly keep our hands to ourselves during the day. And it's because we're in love. We love each other and people who love each other have sex. Mom, you went through your own relationship with Dad. You know what it feels like to be madly in love, so just be happy for us."

Ellen was staring at her. There was embarrassment, but also hurt and anger in her eyes. The opinion of other people in the Burg meant so much to her, but her daughter didn't care about it. I knew that this had to hurt her, but it was something she would have get to used to.

I hadn't said anything. Steph was handling the situation perfectly, keeping her voice even and calm, even when her mother's voice started to rise. I had my arms around her in silent support, letting her deal with her mom, but also giving her a feeling of safety and maybe even keeping her from drawing her gun. You just never knew with her these days.

"We didn't want to embarrass you. We were enjoying ourselves, forgetting everything around us."

And that was true. I had been so focused on Steph that I hadn't noticed the circle forming around us. I would be in for some ripping from my men, especially my core team, later on, as I hadn't been aware of my surroundings.

"Mom, just let's go back out there and enjoy the rest of the evening. We're here to celebrate, not to discuss our sex life with you."

"But how can I go back out there and face all these people?" Somehow I got the impression that Ellen was more concerned about herself than about us or even her daughter.

"Mom, I'll tell you again. If anyone was embarrassed it should be us. But everyone out there knows that we can hardly keep our hands to ourselves, even in public. Just ask Tank, I'm sure he can tell you some stories. Now get over it." Like when they had caught us going at it in the kitchen a few days before we had to leave for our first mission together.

"But Ric don't you have to say anything to this?"

"No. Steph is handling the situation just fine. Now let's go back to the party." I pulled Steph back against me and she leaned back, accepting me as her support, trusting me to hold her up as she relaxed into me.

"Mom, just get over it." With that Steph turned around to leave, pulling me behind her. I was glad to let Ellen stand there. I didn't have the nerve to discuss our sex life with her, but I really hoped she wouldn't ask my men. There had been more than one compromising situation. My men had gotten into the habit of calling ahead and knocking rather loudly when they wanted to see me in my office, instead of barging right in. Same went for visiting Steph in her office.

We walked back to rejoin our guests and found the party going full steam. Most of my men along with their dates were dancing, right beside our other friends and parents.

"Want to dance, Babe?" I pulled her to me, kissing her below her ear in a spot that drove her crazy.

"But just dancing, okay? I've got plans for you later." Her voice was husky and I felt a stirring low in my groin.

I led her to the middle of the dance floor and we started dancing.

"What did you have in mind?"

"I went to Victoria's Secret today."

"What did you buy? Did you buy a lacy bra and panties set? Or one of these sexy see-through dresses?" My voice had gone husky as well and I wanted nothing more than drag her off and have my wicked way with her, but I restrained myself from activating the butterfly again.

"It's black, but I'm not going to tell you what I bought. Mary Lou thought you might like it." I had to groan at the thought of Steph in some piece of barely existing lingerie.

"Do you have any idea what you do to me?" I pulled her even tighter to me, my erection pressing against her stomach.

"Ric, when can we leave?"

We hadn't stopped dancing while we had discussed our plans for the evening.

"Takes some time."

"Damn."

"Anxious to get home?" I had to smile at her enthusiasm to get me home and into bed.

The rest of the evening was really pleasant. Our parents and Val's family left around midnight. After that all bets were off. The real dancing started, but mostly it was more like groping. Everyone invited had brought a date, so nobody had to stand around alone.

Seeing all my men around reminded me. "Babe, who's manning the control room?"

"Tank arranged for contract workers. Everything's under control and some of the men are on call and they don't drink alcohol."

"What about Kemaru?"

"He's already bagged and loaded, sitting in a cell at the PD. We brought him in this afternoon when we were shopping. Lou and I made a little side trip before we headed home."

"How did you manage to keep it all a secret?"

"Your guys are good at keeping secrets anyway and the rest we told only a week in advance."

I kissed her and we continued dancing until it was time to go. The couples were breaking up, starting to clean up, packing up leftovers. Steph and I attempted to go and help when Tank came over to us.

"You go home with your fiancée, we're going to take care of everything. Take her home and celebrate some more without an audience." He was snickering at the blush that crept up Steph cheeks.

I nodded to acknowledge him and then picked Steph up, carrying her outside bridal style to the car. I let her slide down my front, the friction doing nothing for my state. I pushed her up against the car, kissing her into oblivion. She brought her legs up around my waist, my body pressing into her the only thing keeping her up. Our kiss was getting more hungry and demanding, speaking of the desire we had for each other. I had my hands on her ass, pulling her groin firmly against mine, rubbing against her. She had her arms around my neck, playing with my hair, while kissing me.

I pulled back a little bit. "Babe."

She didn't react, too busy trying to recapture my lips.

"Babe." I pulled back a little more, making it impossible for her to reach me in her current position.

"Don't stop."

"If I don't stop now I'm going to screw you against the car." My voice was deep, the desire I felt for her making it hard to speak at all and I was surprised I could still talk in whole sentences.

"I don't want you to stop." She was nuzzling my neck, trying to convince me.

"I don't want to stop but I don't want to spend the night in jail because we were picked up for indecent exposure."

I grabbed her and opened her door for her, putting her in the seat and buckling her in. She was sitting there, slightly dazed and definitely kissable. I got into the car as well and pulled out of the parking lot. We weren't even entirely out on the street when Steph started teasing me, trailing her fingers up and down my thigh, getting closer to my crotch with every upward motion she made.

I couldn't stand it any longer and brought my hand down over hers, trapping her hand, but to no avail. She wiggled her hand free, placing it over my erection. Before I could stop here she had pulled the zipper down and my cock in her mouth, sucking me off.

I had major problems maintaining my control her stimulation was nearly too much to stand, but somehow I managed to get us into the garage without losing control of the car and before she could finish me off. Once the car was parked safely, she gave as good as she got, activating the cock ring I was still wearing.

When I'd had a chance to calm down a little after the mind blowing orgasm she had just given me I got out of the car, walking around to her side to help her out.

The ride up in the elevator was made in silence. We stood as far away from each other as possible, trying to avoid ravishing each other in front of the cameras. Cameras. Shit, I'd totally forgotten about the cameras in the garage and I hadn't scrambled the feed.

"Babe?" She had kept her eyes adverted, but looked up to meet my eyes now. "We gave the guys in the control room quite a show."

"Huh?" She looked like she had no idea what I was talking about.

"I didn't scramble the cameras."

"Oh. Too late to worry about it now." That assessment showed me just how desperate she was. Under normal circumstances she would have been embarrassed to death, tonight all she seemed to care about was getting me naked.

We kept our hands to ourselves until we'd entered the apartment. Once inside I kicked the door shut and pushed Steph back against it, trapping her between the door and my body. I kissed her within an inch of her life before I started to undress her.

When she was naked I grabbed her and sat her down on the sideboard that had the perfect height. She was too dazed to notice what was really going on, so before she could gather her wits I had stripped as well.

She was so beautiful sitting there, spread open for me to see her, dripping wet with her own juices, wearing nothing but the butterfly. I activated it and she started squirming and moaning and threw her head back, the sensational overload nearly too much to stand for her. Before she could do anything about it I had taken off the cock ring. I wanted the real thing, not some poor imitation.

I nudged her legs further apart, stepping between them and brought my hand behind her neck to reclaim her mouth. Steph tangled her hands in my hair, pulling me as close to her as possible. I left my mouth at hers, our tongues fighting for dominance, but brought my hands up from her hips to her breasts. I cupped them, squeezing slightly until she moaned and let her head fall back again. She broke the kiss, but also gave herself completely over to the sensations I was evoking in her.

"Please." She was begging just the way I liked it.

"What do you want? Tell me what you want me to do."

"Omigod, I need you inside me." I didn't reply yet, but I removed the butterfly. She whimpered, although I wasn't sure why. She tugged me close again. "Please, Ric. I need you to take me right here."

I never let up the ministrations at her breasts, adding pulling and twisting her nipples to the mix. I had latched onto her neck, sucking her skin between my teeth and nipping sharply, causing her hips to shoot up, but marking her as my woman at the same time. I was sure that before the night was over we would both be covered in hickeys and bite marks.

I had never touched her clit, but she was reduced to a shivering and trembling mass of desire and pure lust. The butterfly had definitely done its job.

Before she could complain I pulled her to the edge of the sideboard and thrust up into her. She bucked her hips, trying to sheath me deeper.

"Slow down, Babe. We've got all night."

"Can't wait." She was breathless like she had just run a marathon.

I had stilled inside her, but she clenched her pelvic muscles around me, getting me into motion.

I tried to keep my thrusts slow and deep, but I knew that I couldn't hold back much longer. I placed my thumb over her clit, rubbing it feverishly while thrusting hard into her. Her nails were digging into my shoulders, the pain only adding to the pleasure.

It took only a few hard thrusts to send her over, shuddering and screaming my name. Her whole body fell into convulsions, pulling me soon with her. I felt my balls tighten mere seconds before I shot my hot cum into her while my body went stiff.

I collapsed on top of her, barely able to keep myself from crushing Steph. I had trouble breathing, panting and gasping, Steph wasn't doing any better than me. I waited for her to get her breathing back under control before I slightly pulled away from her, so that I could look at her face again.

"You're beautiful, my love."

"Huh?" Apparently she wasn't back to working order yet.

"You're beautiful. You've got that glow, your eyes are bright and shining and you look totally content." Just from looking at her my cock was getting harder inside her again.

"I love you. And I'm totally content with sitting here and looking at you after you just made love to me in an incredible way."

I started to thrust inside her again; my cock already hard, but she stopped me. "Nope, you didn't get your present yet." She pushed me away a little, disengaging our bodies. She hopped from the sideboard, scurrying away on surprisingly steady feet, her ass swaying invitingly. I followed her into the bedroom where she grabbed a black duffel bag and ducked into the bathroom after calling a "Get comfortable" over her shoulder.

I knew that she would take her time, so I went back into the kitchen to get some bottled water. I knew we would need it later. On the way back I noticed the big box from Edna and my core team sitting on the coffee table, right beside what appeared to be the stand of the swing. I brought the water into the bedroom, placing it next to my side of the bed before going back to get the box. It was surprisingly heavy, but I managed. I placed it within easy reach and got comfortable on the bed after dimming the lights. I only had to wait a little over a minute before Steph came out of the bathroom.

She took my breath away. On a normal day in her RangeMan attire she's gorgeous but in the lace teddy she was wearing, there was just no way to describe it. The teddy looked like a triangle bikini, the pieces connected in the middle with a string over her belly button. When she turned around I got the full effect. In the back it was only held together by strings. The teddy was a dream of black see-through lace. But she made the teddy what it was, sex on legs, it enhanced her curves just perfect. She looked stunning. And it perfectly showed off her tattoos.

"Wow."

"You like?" She acted coy, trying to look innocent, but we both knew she was anything but.

"I love it."

"I see." She was giggling while glancing at my throbbing erection.

I stood up, embracing her, pulling her in for a kiss that curled her toes, speaking of love and tenderness, but soon turned into demanding and passionate.

"Do whatever you want to do to me." She was whispering into my ear, her breath tickling me, sending shivers through my body.

"Anything?" I knew her boundaries but we'd talked about gently stretching her limits, going over them to show her new things that were quite pleasurable and enjoyable for her.

"Anything. I'm your birthday present. Do what you want." Her voice was firm, steady and when I looked into her eyes they spoke of love and trust which gave me a rush.

I kissed her again before I slowly peeled her out of her teddy. She was standing in front of me and I was kissing her skin as I revealed it, paying special attention to her pebbled nipples.

"Stand like this, Babe." From the shaking in her legs I knew that she had to have trouble performing that task.

"I... I can't." She was swaying a little, so I put my hands on her hips, steadying her. I laid kisses on every inch of skin I could reach, but never touching where she desired my touch the most.

"Please." Her voice was hoarse; she was having trouble to talk at all.

I decided that a change in location was in order and for what I had in mind I needed her on the bed anyways. "Lay down on your stomach." My voice was firm, commanding. I wanted to stretch her horizons and for that I needed her to trust me, but also let me be the one in charge. And I had every intention of doing so that night.

She lay down in the middle of the bed, the silky comforter underneath her, her head on a pillow, arms underneath it. I pushed another pillow under her stomach to lift her ass up a little and sat astride her but kept my weight off of her.

"You okay?"

Steph just purred in answer and I grabbed one of the bottles with massage oil out of the box. Looking at the bottle I saw that I had grabbed a vanilla one. Oh well. I poured some in my hands, rubbing them together to warm it up and the scent of vanilla filled the room, embracing us. I started my massage at the base of her neck, working out all the knots along her back, paying special attention to every hard spot easing it out while working my way down to her butt. My massage went on until she was only a mass of really relaxed, but also deeply aroused and quivering flesh. Steph's moaning and the way she was wiggling her butt clued me in on her state.

* * *

_A/N: I'm going on vacation for about three weeks without internet access, but I promise to update as soon as I get back._


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I'm sorry for the long wait. First I went on vacation and when I got back RL was busy. Things finally settled down, so here it is, enjoy!

Huge thanks to Cat who agreed to beta this chapter for me.

SMUT warning! Play with SEX TOYS!

Birthday Surprises

by Katrin

Chapter 4

Reaching into the box beside the bed again, I rooted around until I found personal lube and the smallest butt plug. Scooting down her body until I was sitting between her spread legs, I poured some of the lube onto her anus and put a glob of it onto my forefinger. I massaged her there, relaxing the muscles before I pushed against the tight ring. Her muscles gave way for my finger, the lube making it quite easy to slide in. I moved my finger slowly in and out of her.

"You okay with this, Babe?" She had left all decisions to me, but that didn't mean that I would take advantage of her and not make sure that she enjoyed it. I wanted to broaden her horizons, not break them.

"Hmm."

I kept up the steady movements of my finger until she was pushing back, trying to ride the digit.

Pulling my finger out, I lubed up the butt plug, as well as pouring some extra lube onto her anus yet again. I positioned the toy, ready to put it in place, but as soon as the cool tip touched her, Steph tensed up.

"Relax. Remember how good my finger felt." I started stroking her back again and gradually she relaxed.

"Give it another try? I promise, if you don't like it just tell me and I'm gonna take it out immediately."

"You aren't going to use the beads, are you?" Her voice was so tiny and unsure I was seriously considering just stopping and making love to her like we usually did.

"No beads. I've selected the smallest butt plug, the light blue one." She had seen me unpack her grandma's present so she knew which one I meant. I never let up the stroking motions on her back, reassuring her.

"Hmm, put it in." Holding the plug still in place I just had to lightly push against it, pushing it slowly into her as yet untouched ass. A little way in I met resistance I hadn't felt when using my finger.

"Push out a little," I commanded. She did as I told her and the toy went right in without any further problems, but it also told me that she wasn't as relaxed as I wanted and needed her to be, so I started the massage once again.

"Just relax, babe. Let yourself go. I'm gonna take care of you."

She murmured something I didn't quite understand while I worked the tension out of her body until she was boneless. I massaged her butt cheeks, tapping again the butt plug every once in a while, adding extra sensations to what Steph was already experiencing. Every tap caused her to moan.

"You okay?"

"Can't believe how god it feels." Her voice was muffled by the pillow she was lying upon, but this time I could understand her without problems.

"It's about to get a lot better. Stay put." I got up to wash my hands before I did anything else to her. Afterwards I sat back down on the bed but didn't straddle her. I put another pillow under her stomach and spread her legs again. I settled down between them, her sex displayed to me and in easy reach.

"You still okay?"

Steph was unusual silent, but it could always have been the state she was in. "Hmm," she groaned finally. She tilted her hips, inviting me to touch her and I did just that. I brushed a finger over her clit and she jerked in reaction, either because of the sensation or because she was surprised I would never know. I did it again and she moaned. Tracing a finger around her moist opening I felt her push back against it, trying to increase the friction.

I brought my fingers back to her clit, rubbing it lightly until she was shivering and she had the pillow her head was lying on in a death grip. Good thing Ella thought we needed so many pillows.

"Ric, please."

"Please, what?"

"I need you inside me, filling me, stretching me."

"No. You've got to wait some more for that." I knew I was taunting her, but it would make her eruption more powerful.

From the way her muscles trembled, I knew that she was getting close to what promised to be an incredible orgasm for her. My need was growing as well, literally, but I ignored it, controlled it, so Steph could fully enjoy this experience.

I teased her clit some more, her hips bucking wildly against me now.

"You like that, Babe, don't you? Having a butt plug up your ass while I finger your clit? Or isn't it enough for you? Do you want more?" My voice was harsh with desire for her.

Her only response was a gasp, as the ability to talk had already left her.

The circles I was rubbing were getting harder and faster as I thrust two fingers into her. My thumb was pushing against the plug and she came violently. Her whole body went rigid, falling into spasms and she screamed incoherent, not even able to form my name as she usually did. This was exactly the reaction I had wanted her to have, how I had wanted her to go over the edge. It was how I had wanted her to enjoy her first experience with a butt toy.

I gave her some time to come down from her high, laying down beside her, pulling her into my embrace.

"You okay?" She was awfully quiet, something I wasn't used to from Steph and therefore it had me worried.

"Wow, just wow." She could only croak, so I handed her the bottled water. She took it gratefully and gulped about half of it down.

"Better now?"

"Very." She shifted a little and moaned again.

"Everything alright?" I had no idea why she was moaning as I wasn't doing anything to stimulate her.

"Yeah." She moaned again and started rubbing herself against me. My cock was lodged between her butt cheeks and I was about to lose it.

"Turn around, Babe." She turned in my arms and I kissed her.

Steph was rocking against me, my cock between us. It felt incredible, not only the sensations her movement were causing but also the emotions she set free in me. I felt ready to burst, the love and desire I felt for her, but also the friendship and partnership we shared. And most of all, she was finally mine. After years of going back to Morelli, she was finally and undeniably with me.

I had my hands on her butt, holding her to me, but also trying to stop her wiggling.

"You've got to stop, Babe, or I'm gonna lose it."

Instead of answering me, she just lifted her upper leg and hooked it around my legs, pulling me even tighter to her, bringing my cock in direct contact with her wet opening. I loved it when she took the initiative in bed, when she got aggressive and demanding. And she knew this.

I wanted nothing more than to sink into her, her hands roaming over my chest doing nothing for my self control, when I remembered that the plug was still in place, firmly lodged into her ass.

"Do you want me to take the plug out?" I'd never force her to wear it, although she had said I could do as I pleased. I knew from personal experience that after some time those little buggers could get damn uncomfortable.

"Huh?"

"The butt plug that's still inside you, do you want me to take it out for you?"

Steph blushed a crimson red and broke our eye contact, looking down between us, avoiding my gaze.

"Yes. I never- never thought I would say this but I really enjoyed it. But it's getting uncomfortable now." She was blushing even darker, something I hadn't thought possible.

"Hey," I tipped her chin up so I could look into her eyes, "There's no need to be embarrassed." I brought my hand around to her rear, letting my fingers wander around until I found the base of the plug. I told her to push out and carefully pulled. Seconds later it was out. I placed it on the night stand so I wouldn't forget to clean it later on.

"Better now?"

"Very."

I forced her to look into my eyes but she tried to avoid it."What about a repeat performance sometime in the future?" I wanted to know just how much she had liked it. We were in a test phase for sex toys and I wanted to find out which ones she liked the best.

"We can do it again, but not that often, okay?" Her voice was small and she sounded so insecure that it tore at my heart. I nearly got the impression she was trying to please me.

"I'd never force you to do anything you don't want to do. Always remember that, Babe. I love you."

She nodded and I cradled her in my arms. I felt her breath get deeper and even, and before long Steph was asleep in my arms, leaving me with a world class erection and no way to do anything about it.

It had been a wonderful evening though. I'd had a lot of fun, we'd laughed and enjoyed ourselves, we had entertained the others and my men had surprised me with their gifts which we would both enjoy. Tonight's events in the apartment had hopefully been a preview of things to come. I hoped that we would use some of the care package I had received, but it was Steph's decision. Despite the boner, I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

I woke up the next morning with Steph cuddled up against me, and from her breathing I could tell that she was still sleeping. I let my hands roam over her body, slowly waking her up.

Her breathing changed slightly. "Babe, we need to get up."

"Don't wanna."

"You gotta. I'll have Ella bring you pancakes if you get up now."

"Ungh." She slowly rolled out of my arms and got out of the bed, but not without muttering under her breath constantly. She was probably cursing me for scheduling the interview that early. She had no chance though, as it was standard RangeMan procedure to do the interviews early so there was enough time to do the physical eval. And she knew that.

I gave Ella a call, asking for breakfast and then went to join Steph in the shower. I found her standing under the spray, one leg on the built-in bench, shaving her legs. I took care of pressing business and then joined her. Because of the water running she hadn't heard me enter the shower stall. I stepped up behind her, and slung my arm around her waist. She yelped in surprise and would have probably jumped as well, but I was holding her in place.

"Don't move." I took the razor out of her hand and stepped closer. The picture she made, bendt over in the shower, her most intimate parts on display for me, gave me an instant erection. She somehow sensed it as she wiggled her tight little ass against my straining cock.

"I told you not to move." To make myself really clear I pinched her nipples hard and she moaned. I had discovered over the time that sometimes she liked me to get a little rough with her.

I moved my hands up and down her front, from hips to breasts and back, never staying long in one spot. I knew that it was driving her crazy and that was exactly what I wanted. It was driving me crazy to see her like this, so trusting and willing to go with whatever I might come up with. Literally. I had to blow off a lot of steam as she had fallen asleep immediately after I took the plug out. Not that I would never hold it against her. The experience had been really intense for her, taking it out of her, so to speak, and I hadn't been surprised when she dozed off. Combined with the excitement of the previous few days and the lack of sleep the night before it was understandable.

During my musings I had never stopped the stroking. The cute little noises of enjoyment Steph was making were exciting me. I wanted nothing more than to enter her with one hard thrust, but I knew she wasn't ready yet. I left my right hand on her breast, manipulating her nipple, while I brought the other one down to play with her clit. Seven months of living together with Steph, sharing a bed with her almost every night, and engaging in love making almost as often had taught me how to arouse her. I knew how to move my fingers to get the response I wanted, and that morning I had to get the response rather quick.

Rushing things while making love to Steph wasn't one of my favorite things, but sometimes there just was no way around it. Besides, I always made sure that Steph thoroughly enjoyed it. Being as responsive as she was wasn't something I had encountered with many women. And I had been with quite a few women. That was not something I was proud of, but it was a part of me, of my history, and Steph accepted it.

In the meantime Steph had gotten hot and wet and ready, ready for me, ready to take me all in.

"Ric, please, I can't stand it any longer," she pleaded with me.

I brought my hand down to her sex as well, thrusting one thick finger into her. I curled it upwards a little, brushing against that secret spot hidden there and Steph moaned, pushing back against the finger. I moved it in and out a little, eliciting more moans from her.

"Omigod, I need more." Her wail echoed from the tiled walls of the bathroom..

I pushed a second finger in and she started riding them in earnest now. I brought her to the brink, my ministrations on her clit speeding up along with the movements my fingers made inside her. When she was about to go over I pulled my fingers out of her, leaving her hanging and she whimpered at the loss of sensation. I brought my fingers, glistening in her juices, to my nose to take a smell. They smelled of her, that musky, rough smell of sex, mixed with that sweet scent that was all woman, all Steph. Licking my fingers I enjoyed the taste of her juices, as they showed me just how much she was enjoying this.

Molding my front to her back, I thrust inside Steph, eliciting a surprised and strangled gasp from her throat.

I flicked a finger over her clit and she screamed, the sound echoing off the walls, drowning us in. It was only muffled by the noise of the water still pouring down on us.

"Please, Ric." Steph's voice was breathy, strangled. There wasn't a sound sweeter in the world than hearing her say my name like this.

"What do you want, Babe? What do you want me to do?" Teasing her like this was sure to piss her off a little, which in turn caused the wild cat to come out, freeing Steph of all the bonds the Burg had taught her. It made her more free in our love making, made her a little bit more aggressive, which in turn was a huge turn on for me. Teasing each other made our love making that much more enjoyable. For both of us.

"Move, damnit." As if to make her point she started to move her hips back against me, at least as much as the position she was in allowed her to do so.

"Move?" I flexed my hips a little, bringing my balls to her ass.

"Fuck me!" She was yelling at me, a sure sign that I had her at the point I wanted her to be.

I adjusted her position, bringing the leg on the bench down onto the floor and moving her hands against the tiled wall so she could brace herself, never pulling out of her.

When Steph was in position I started thrusting in earnest, my thrusts deep and fast, because I had just realized that play time was running out for us. I kept my fingers on her clit, but didn't move them. She was rubbing against my fingers with every thrust I made, causing her to gasp with every motion I made. Further speeding up my thrusts I brought her close to the brink and with a last tug on her clit she fell over, screaming my name in pleasure. She was shaking and sobbing, her legs unstable under her.

I felt her clenching around me, her muscles contracting, trying to pull me over the brink after her. It had been hard, but I'd manage to keep my control until I had pushed her over, but her orgasm was too much to bear, too much to hold out any longer.

I felt it coming, the tremors running through my body. My balls were getting hard and then I felt my cum spurting into her.

I groaned her name and my muscles went stiff in orgasm. I had to be careful to keep from crushing Steph.

After a few moments I felt that I was unable to keep us upright any longer, so I pulled out of her and gathered Steph in my arms before sitting down on the bench with her sitting in my lap.

The water was still gently flowing over us, providing us with warmth. I knew that we should get out of the shower, but I wasn't sure I could move yet, and I didn't want to lose contact to Steph. We remained sitting until our labored breathing had calmed down and I couldn't hear the blood rushing in my ears with every beat of my heart.

"You ready to move yet?" I asked Steph, gently nudging her in the ribs.

"Think so," she agreed reluctantly. Steph stood up with a little help and we finished showering, keeping our hands to ourselves this time by mutual agreement. We liked to wash each other, but just didn't have the time for another round. We got out of the shower and dried off, and then went to get dressed, talking about the day ahead.

"What's the plan for the day?" Steph, curious as ever, wanted to know. It didn't seem to faze her that she hadn't had much sleep the last few days, or she would have been a lot quieter.

"We've got an interview scheduled with Phoenix at 0800. After that a trip to the bonds office, see if there are any new ones. You've got a self defense lesson scheduled with Tank today at 1400 and your Mom left a message and invited us for dinner. Tank wants to show you some new move he picked up somewhere. You should probably take the chance and take him to the gun range. It's been a while since he's thrown a knife or a dart."

Steph groaned at the prospect of dinner with her crazy family, which didn't surprise me. We both knew that her mom would give her hell about the engagement and probably about our stunt with the butterfly as well.

"She's been up really early. Probably ironing the toilet paper already, the bottle of Scotch empty and she's pulled the plug." One year ago that would have surprised me, I now knew that the Burg grapevine knew no such thing as night rest.

But as innocent as the word 'plug' could be, it brought back pictures of last night. From the looks of it, Steph remembered as well.

"We better get a move on."


	5. Chapter 5

I don't own them, I don't make any money off of this and I only write for my (and hopefully your) entertainment. I promise to return the characters to the author unscathed. No copyright infringement intended.

Thank you, Kat, for betaing for me. You did an awesome job!

SMUT!

Chapter 5

"Damn. What's the dress code for the day?"

Stephanie was working full time at RangeMan these days, dividing her time between RangeMan and shopping as it suited her. She was still bringing in skips for Vinnie, but she was doing a lot of other jobs now as well. Only bounty hunting wasn't challenging enough for her skills, so she trained some guys on how to do searches and then started serious security work. I certainly wasn't about to complain. I had enough money for the both of us and her shopping always resulted in a trip to Victoria's Secret. What more could I wish for? But her question about the dress code was justified as I had had her sitting in on meetings before, some of which she'd had to dress up for.

"Uniform." She would carry either way.

"Who's this guy you're interviewing and why do you want me to sit in?" She looked up at me, curious to hear my explanation.

"We're talking to Aki, or Phoenix as he's called now, and he's 28. That's about normal age to start at RangeMan. He's a potential employee and I want your spidey sense to feel him out. If you've got a bad feeling about him, I won't hire him, otherwise he's on." Guessing by the look on her face it was a safe thing to say that she hadn't expected that one. Besides, officially she was the main person responsible for new hires, but we'd decided to make decisions like this always with the entire core team. Especially after the disaster Sam had brought us.

"Who else is gonna sit in?"

"Whole core team."

"Who's gonna take notes and stuff? I hope you don't expect me to play secretary." That one gave me some serious ideas. Steph in a short skirt, hiked up around her waist, wearing only a garter and thigh highs underneath and bent over my desk. Damn, I was losing track here.

"Not necessary. I'll jot down the most important stuff. The rest we can get from the tapes."

"Are you gonna tell me more about him?"

"Nope. We want you to observe all these little things we usually don't notice. For that to be possible you can't get more than his name and age or your vision might get obstructed." I hoped she would understand the reasoning, as I didn't particularly want to discuss it any further.

"Okay, I can do that."

"Good, now let's get breakfast." I had heard Ella come in, undoubtedly leaving us something healthy for breakfast, but Steph would like it nevertheless. We had even had tofu before, although she didn't know it, believing that it was chicken nuggets. When I had told her afterward,she had been surprised, having enjoyed dinner immensely. After that she told Ella to cook whatever she felt like, she would eat it. My men had been laughing their asses off on that one, until I had Ella do tofu burgers for everyone. You just couldn't tell if you were eating meat or not. That had surprised them, but now they understood Steph.

By now we had gotten dressed in our uniforms, foregoing the utility belts for the moment. Steph went to tame her hair while I made my way into the kitchen to start the coffee and read the paper.

Ten minutes later Steph joined me. I looked up at her and appreciated her picture once again. She made her uniform look good, the tight French plaid she had her hair in adding to the powerful air surrounding her. She looked like she was ready to kick some ass.

"Hungry?"

"You gotta ask?"

She settled down beside me and dug in, chatting happily about the newest developments in the Burg and her family. She didn't expect me to answer and that was fine with me, but it didn't deter her. I knew that she thought I wouldn't really listen, but I was listening, content to hear her talk. She knew that she would have to sit still and listen in the meeting, something that was really hard for her, so she tried to get a head start on her talking.

Breakfast finished, we went to get the belts and then went down to the third floor to meet Phoenix and my core team.

"You ready for action, Babe?"

"Yup." Steph was bouncing on the balls of her feet, her excitement obvious. When we made our way to the conference room Tank and Lil were outside, waiting for us. With their mere presence they let me know that everything was all right and that Lester and Bobby were with Phoenix for now.

All four of them had looked through Phoenix' file. I had done the research myself, as I wanted Steph to observe unobstructed. We went in and shook hands while I made the instructions. When I introduced Steph I just said her name, not mentioning anything else about her. She looked different than usual and I hoped like hell he wouldn't recognize her as the Bombshell Bounty Hunter. I was afraid that if he mentioned it she might bite off his balls.

The guys nodded hello and we settled into our respective chairs, Steph on my right side, Phoenix opposite me. He was eying all of us curiously but didn't say anything. I was sure we were a sight to behold. All six of us in black and with heavy boots, armed to the teeth. But what was more confusing for him was probably Steph, a beautiful woman between dangerous men. He had no idea just how dangerous Steph was.

We exchanged the usual pleasantries and than I started right in. "Phoenix, why RangeMan?"

He had asked me to call him Phoenix the first time I talked to him and I respected his wish, just like everyone respected Tank's wish not to call him by his given name, something I understood completely.

"I got out of the service and was looking for a job. Heard you were the best." My company was the best and with a military background he would fit right in.

"Which part?"

"Air Force." That would explain the nickname.

Steph was snickering next to me and Phoenix threw her an irritated glance. She was most likely amused about the short and terse answers he gave.

Tank spoke up. "Any other experiences that would explain why you want to work with us? Or specialties?"

"I have worked security and body guarding before. And I'm pretty sure I can learn anything I might need to know about computers quickly." Good answer, so I nodded. On to other important questions.

"Family? Wife? Anyone else in close relation?"

"My parents live in Boston and the distance between us is necessary. Neither wife nor girlfriend." He wasn't offended at the question, knowing why I was asking. But when he told us his marital status he glanced at Steph. Noticing it she moved her hands in a way that the sunlight broke in the diamond in her engagement ring. The message came across rather quickly.

"Strengths?" Just as I was asking Steph brought her left hand down, settling it on my thigh and squeezing gently. My reaction to her touch was instantaneous.

"Good with foreign languages. I speak and write Russian, French, German and Greece and am working on Swahili. And I'm pretty good with knifes."

"What do you consider 'pretty good'?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know the details." Good enough, but maybe he could teach Steph another thing or two. Just like she was teaching the core team how to throw darts and knives after the near miss our mission had nearly become.

"Weaknesses?"

He looked slightly embarrassed but sucked it up and answered anyway. "I had a rather wild youth. Drugs, alcohol, B&E."

Steph's hand was moving from my thigh to my groin, rubbing my boner through my cargos.

"Any trouble since you joined?"

"No." I knew that he was telling us the truth.

"Okay." Phoenix looked up in surprise, so I went on to elaborate. "Most of us had a rough youth. We don't judge people by what they did when they were young and stupid."

That was when Steph spoke up, catching him by surprise as she hadn't said anything before. "Here, it only counts who you are now and how you perform. Your past formed who you are today."

Phoenix looked at her, his gaze steady and you could see that he was thinking something over. "What's your role in this interview today, if you don't mind me asking?"

What she said next surprised me. "Gotta make sure you aren't a potential stalker." She snickered at her own joke. Then she glanced at me, letting me know she was okay with Phoenix being hired. I caught the eyes of my core team, receiving the same message. That settled it, Phoenix was hired if he still wanted the job which was very likely.

Meanwhile Phoenix stared at Steph, totally baffled and really surprised at her honesty. "Stalker?" The huge question mark was shining over his head.

Steph laughed, showing us her beautiful smile. "Do you have any idea who I am?"

Phoenix shook his head.

"Ever heard of the Bombshell Bounty Hunter?" Tank, Bobby, Lil and Lester were watching curiously as the scene unfolded in front of them. Phoenix was about to meet the real Steph, the woman underneath, for the first time. He didn't see her when she was stamped on by nearly everybody, when she had to defend herself against her mom and her so called failures. For Steph to open up to him like this meant a lot and it told all of us just how much she must already trust him. I just hoped that Phoenix would understand in time just how big this present she was about to give him really was.

"Yeah." he looked at Steph again and you could see the understanding dawn in his eyes. "You're the Bombshell Bounty Hunter? Wow!"

"I guess that means you know about my little stalker problem?" I wouldn't call it little, but oh well.

"Yes."

"See, I get this feeling around certain people that tells me if they mean me harm. Ranger wouldn't want to hire someone who might stalk me in the future, so we scan the potential hires."

Despite the conversation she was having with Phoenix she was never letting up the pressure she was bringing onto my hard shaft. Not one to feel left out I brought my hand to the juncture of her legs and started rubbing against the seam of her cargoes. I looked at her and saw the heat blazing in her eyes - proof enough for me that I was hitting the right spot.

Phoenix' eyes were switching back and forth between the two of us, obviously trying to figure out what was going on. My men were just grinning, they had probably guessed.

"What are your food preferences if you don't mind me asking?"

The question startled him, but my men had to laugh. It wasn't a professional interview anymore anyway, so I didn't see it necessary to cut in. We already had decided to hire him, now we just wanted to get to know him better. But at this question I had to work to hide a smirk myself.

"Uhm, why do you ask?"

"Just humor me, okay?"

"I'm a vegetarian."

"Sweets?"

"No."

"Damn. Welcome to the club of health nuts. Don't tell me you eat tofu."

"Uh, why not? Tastes good."

She turned to me. "How do you find them? What do you do to have only health nuts apply for your jobs? Why can't you just once hire someone who will share a pizza with me or bring me donuts? Bring me candy? Why? Do you get word out to 'Only apply if health nut without appreciation for real food'?

I leaned down to lay a kiss on her, effectively silencing her. "Babe."

The constant pressure she was keeping up was driving me insane, but Steph was in no better condition than me. The rubbing of the seam of her pants causing them to get damp and she was squirming in her seat.

"Don't "Babe" me. You know what happens when I go off sugar." True. To get her mom to stop tippling she had laid off sugar about one month ago, reducing her intake even more than after her training and the results had been great, but exhausting. Steph had been on the cranky side and insatiable in bed. It had been too much for me in the end so I had secretly bought her donuts to get some sleep at all. She seemed to recall the happenings of this time as well, the gasp quite obvious. There weren't many places in this building where she hadn't thrown me down to have her wicked way with me.

I decided to put an end to the interview, no longer able to hold out and addressed Phoenix. "Welcome to RangeMan. The job's yours if you still want it."

He stood up as well. "I'd love to work here."

"Good. My men will take you to Ella to get your measurements for your uniform and then they'll show you around. I'll join you in the gym in an hour for the evaluation."

We shook hands and they went to leave. The last thing I heard was Phoenix: "Are they always like this?"

"Don't worry, they just got engaged yesterday," Lester was quick to answer.

The door was finally pulled shut and I pulled Steph out of her chair.

"Driving me crazy turned you on, didn't it? Making me mad with desire, not able to do anything about it?" Before she could even attempt to answer I pulled her into a rough kiss, sealing my mouth to hers, stealing both of our breaths. I kissed her with abandon, cradling her head in my hands as I changed the angle slightly so I could deepen the kiss. My tongue was exploring Steph's mouth, playing with her tongue.

Steph grabbed my ass, pulling me even tighter against her. She ground her hips into mine and I groaned, breaking our kiss. In the blink of an eye I had Steph turned around so she was facing away from me, and bent over the conference table.

I opened the fly of her pants and pulled them down, leaving them to bunch around her ankles, effectively immobilizing her. I ripped her panties off with a hard yank and roughly shoved two fingers into her welcoming heat making her shriek. Steph was wet beyond belief, and she had been a bad girl. That screamed for punishment.

"Ric, please."

"Uh uh, you've been a bad girl, Babe. It won't be that easy for you. Grip onto the edge of the table and don't move."

She did as I told her and I moved her feet apart as much as the bundled pants would allow.

Without any warning I brought my free hand down onto her ass, her yelp mingling with the slapping sound, leaving a red mark. I did it again and wiggled the fingers I had inside her. This time her yelp was followed by a moan. I spanked her a few times, letting my thumb rub rough circles on her clit.

The tremor in her vaginal muscles told me that she was getting close to the brink. I spanked her again and stepped back, withdrawing my fingers in the process, and left her hanging.

"Ric, please, don't do this to me."

"Do what, Babe? Drive you crazy? Spank you?" She was trying to rub her thighs together, a sure sign that her need had to be almost unbearable.

"Punish me, damnit. Shove your fucking dick into me and fuck me senseless."

Her wish was my command. I stepped behind her again and pulled her thighs apart. Before she knew what was happening I was inside her to the hilt, the tip of my cock brushing against her cervix, just like she wanted it, while I pinched her clit and slapped her ass.

Steph came instantly, screaming my name. Her walls were clenching around me almost painfully, trying to pull me with her. I was hanging onto my control by a thin thread as she was shaking and trembling under me and around me.

Grabbing her around the waist to keep her from crumpling to the floor I slowly started to thrust into her with steady strokes, building her back up again. My breathing sped up with my thrusts and Steph was panting. The noises were driving me crazy.

Her inner muscles hadn't stopped clenching yet when she came again. This time she pulled me with her into orgasm and I felt my hot load spurt into her as I groaned her name. Steph's legs were shaking uncontrollably now. Mine were in no better condition, so I sank to the floor, pulling her with me. She came to rest in my lap with me still inside her, but I could feel myself going soft. I would need a few minutes before I was ready for another round. We were in no condition yet anyway. Our breathing was still coming in gasps and I could feel my heart beat against my ribcage.

"You okay, there?" I couldn't see her eyes, so I had no idea what Steph was feeling and how she was doing.

That was something I didn't want at that moment so I lifted her up, flopping out of her in the process, and turned her around until she was straddling me.

Instead of answering me she laid a kiss on me that made me forget what I was asking in the first place.

"Thanks."

"Huh?" I had no idea what she was talking about.

"Thanks," she said in her well-duh voice, "That was exactly what I needed. But did you scramble the cameras?"

She looked up into the corner. I followed her gaze and saw the green LED blink.

"Fuck."

"Uhm, yes, that's what we did." She was grinning at me.

"You know, we gave the guys quite a show." Only Tank and I had the possibility to shut off the feed to the control room. Tank was showing Phoenix around and I had been fucking her brains out.

"Is it bad that it turned me on?"

I looked up in surprise, never having pegged her as one to get off on knowing that someone was watching us. It just wasn't what one would expect from her, but then she'd done a lot of things nobody would ever expect of her in the last year. Like getting training for example.

Groaning was the only response I was capable of and Steph was laughing at me. I would have loved to show her who was really the boss, but sadly enough we didn't have the time to do so. The guys were waiting for us to get Phoenix' evaluation started.

"I would love to throw you down again, but we do need to get a move on."

Steph stood up to get redressed when she noticed the condition of he panties. "What am I supposed to do now, huh? I can't go and walk around without any underwear." She definitely sounded like she was trying to pout, but the orgasmic bliss had left her too mellow to care.

"You can go up to the apartment and get a new pair or you can go commando, which I'd greatly appreciate." I let my wolfish grin make an appearance, letting Steph get a glimpse of what might be in store for her later.

She pulled her pants up, effectively ending the discussion. We got ourselves put back together and headed out.

We met the core team and Phoenix in the gym and they were grinning like idiots. Seemed like they had witnessed our encounter as well. Made we wonder why Tank hadn't made use of his authority and cut of the feed.

Especially Lester was leering at Steph.

"So guys, did you like it?" Steph was grinning at them and from the way she held herself, at least Tank, Lester, Lil and Bobby should know that Volcano Stephanie was about to erupt. I was pretty sure that even Phoenix knew he shouldn't mess with her now.

"Sure did." Apparently Lester didn't know her as well as I thought.

"Les, you want to participate the next time? Make a nice sandwich?" That smelled of trouble.

"Sure, why not? Bombshell, you know you're hot. We would all love to get a go at you." Les was nearly drooling as the other guys stood back, watching the show unfold.

Suddenly her eyes got cold and hard as she looked at him. "You know Les, I thought at least my closest friends would keep their mouths shut. And you just made a move on your boss' fiancée. Not sure if that was your smartest move ever."

I certainly didn't appreciated it. I was pissed. Les should know better than to bait Steph. He should know by now that I would come up with a suitable punishment for him.

"Enough. Let's get this show on the road. There's more on the schedule for the day. And Les, we will talk about this!"

I guided Phoenix through the evaluation and Bobby made his training schedule. This guy was really good. Steph left at one point to go and do some searches. I took that as my cue to have a little heart to heart with Lester. Bobby was discussing his further training with Phoenix so I deemed it good to leave.

"Santos. My office. Now. Lil, your desk's waiting. Tank, Bobby, you finish here." Without waiting for a reply from either of them I strode out of the gym, making my way into my office. I settled down behind my desk, waiting for Santos to get his ass down here.

* * *

Constructive criticism is always appreciated.


	6. Chapter 6

_I don't own them, I don't make any money off of this and I only write for my (and hopefully your) entertainment. I promise to return the characters to the author unscathed. No copyright infringement intended._

_Thank you, Kat, for betaing for me. You did an awesome job!_

Chapter 6

"_Santos. My office. Now. Lil, your desk's waiting. Tank, Bobby, you finish here." Without waiting for a reply from either of them I strode out of the gym, making my way into my office. I settled down behind my desk, waiting for Santos to get his ass down here._

Lester knocked once and walked in, looking wary.

"Sit." He did as he was told, sitting down in one of the visitor chairs in front of my desk, looking down onto his hands which lay twisted in his lap.

"I'm sorry. What's my punishment? Beat the shit out of me, because I certainly deserve it. I was way out of line and for that I'm sorry." That certainly was a new one.

"What's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb, Les, I know something's bothering you."

"I feel like shit. I treated her like some bimbo you can pick up at Stark. I'm sorry I disrespected Steph and the relationship between the two of you."

"There's more." It wasn't a question, but he nodded anyways.

"It's just--" He paused for a moment before continuing. "I think I'm jealous. You two are perfect for each other. Everyone who looks at the two of you together can tell that you're madly in love. When you're in the same room, you mentally strip each other naked, barely able to contain yourselves. You just ooze the happiness. And after I saw the encounter after the interview I just snapped. I mean, it was fucking sexy to see the two of you like this."

I certainly didn't want Les to give me pointers on my style of satisfying my woman, but not only was I his employer, most importantly I was his friend. And right now he needed a friend to talk to.

"What really happened?" This admission was so unlike Lester.

"I don't know, I'm just lonely I guess."

"When was the last time you kicked back, Les? Really kicked back?"

"That's just it. I can't even remember the last time I got laid. And I don't want to get just laid anymore. I want more, the whole package." Was I really talking to Lester here, player extraordinaire?

"Who do you have in mind?" He was getting too specific to just talk in general and his facial expressions gave him away. Sure, he was trying to do the 'blank face' as Steph calls it, but you could see hope and defeat in his eyes, all at the same time.

"Connie."

"Connie? Connie Rosolli? Vinnie's office manager?" I nearly sputtered. Lester couldn't have surprised me more with any other name he could have uttered. But it certainly explained why he wanted to go and get the files all the time.

"Yeah. But I don't know what to do about it." Now we were getting to the real problem. Les was a lot like me in situations like this. We were perfectly fine as long as we wanted company for one night only, but as soon as our feelings got involved we were at a loss. Steph had saved me from a life alone and I had learned some things in the process. Les deserved to be as happy as I was, everyone deserved it.

"Ask her on a date."

"A date?"

"Don't play dumb. Go to the movie theater, take her out to dinner, get to fucking know her!"

The crimson red his face was glowing in told me that he hadn't thought of dates at all.

Lester nodded and with a "Thanks, Ric," he was out of my office, probably on his way to ask Connie out.

He hadn't been gone for a minute when Steph walked in and she was laughing. Her eyes were shining and she was showing her white teeth, her grin was so broad.

"What was that?"

"If I didn't know better, I'd say Les has a crush on Connie."

She was laughing even harder as she walked over to me and plopped down in my lap. Her whole body was shaking and I could feel the vibrations running through her where she leaned against me.

"What did you say to him?"

Raising my eyebrow I urged her to clarify what she meant.

"What did you say to Lester? You must have said something that got him moving."

"Told him to ask her out, woo her."

"About time. Connie has been waiting for ages for him to ask her out."

"And Les was worried she might say no."

"He should have asked me. You aren't the best one to ask when it comes to relationships and love-"

"Babe." I had to interrupt her before her teasing could get really bad.

"Just admit it. You got it bad, but were too afraid to get your head out of your ass. I had to pull it out for you and you know what it was like." She grinned up at me. As hard as it was to admit it, she was right. Without her decision to got to Mexico and get training I might have never gotten my head out of my ass and we would still be dancing around each other.

"You taught me how to do it and now I passed it on to Les to help him."

"That's okay. Thought about his punishment yet?"

I raised my eyebrow.

"What? You better not think I'll let him get away with what he said. And I had really expected you to drag him into the sparring ring. Or can I beat him up a little?" She certainly would be able to do it, but why should she?

"Kinda defeats the purpose when he admits that he deserves to get the shit beaten out of him. And it's no fun then."

"Sounds like I need to get creative." She thought for a moment and her eyes lit up, a clear sign that she had thought of something evil for Lester.

"Got it. The girls and I wanted to go shopping anyways and you know how enthusiastic we can get." Truer words were never spoken. "We need a mule and Les is perfect for the job."

I almost pitied Les. Knowing the girls they would head to Victoria's Secret first and then have him carry around the pink bags all day.

"Babe, you just went shopping yesterday."

"Yeah, but that was only with Mary Lou. This shopping trip will include her, Lula and Connie, and even Val, if she can find a babysitter."

"You sure Les will manage to carry all the bags the five of you'll need?"

"Nope. Anyone else on your shit list right now? Besides, we can't go shopping today, anyway, I've got a date with Tank later. But if Les asks Connie out we need to go shopping anyway. Every girl needs a new dress for a date, especially if it's a first date."

Female logic was often beyond me, but I didn't really care how much money Steph spent on clothes. As long as she made a trip to Victoria's Secret I was fine with it. I had too much money to spend it all anyway, but Steph sure tried to make a dent in it, even if she hadn't been successful yet.

"Okay, we'll see who we're gonna take along."

"We?"

"Sure. You go to Victoria's Secret. I want to select some more panties to rip off of you when I'm about to fuck you. I want to help you try them on." I was sure my eyes were dark with arousal, the image of Steph in lacy underwear almost too much to bear. But dammit, we didn't have the time to act on it.

"Think it's safe for us to go to the office?"

Huh? "Les is there."

"You sure he's gonna remember to bring the files? Besides, Lula and Connie will try and get as many details about last night out of me as they can: which toys we used, how often we did it... you know. Better get it over with as long as there isn't that much to tell."

"That bad, huh?"

"You know how they can be. Now come on." She kissed me and got up, sauntering out of my office.

I met up with her at the elevator and slipped my arms around her while waiting for the car. When the door opened, Tank, Bobby and Phoenix stepped out.

"Where's Les," Tank wanted to know.

"Connie."

"He finally got his head out of his ass?" Bobby piped up.

"Yeah. Ric decided to share his wisdom," Steph quipped.

Tank looked at her unbelievingly. "What you're trying to tell me is that the boss, who needed 3 years and a lot of kicking his ass to get his head out of his ass to acknowledge that he's head over heels in love now hands out relationship advice? Bombshell, just what did you smoke for breakfast?"

"Ugh, Tank, just ask Les when he gets back. If he gets back. And maybe you'd like to give him some pointers on how to behave on a proper date. We all know that that isn't exactly his strong suit."

Tank and Bobby snickered and I had to work hard to keep the smile from breaking free. Phoenix just watched the exchange, trying to get a handle on the dynamics at RangeMan probably.

"You got it."

"We gotta go, give Connie the third degree."

"Don't forget our lunch date, Bombshell." Tank winked at her and we were finally on our way down to the garage. In the elevator we stood like always, close together, chest to chest. I had my arms around her, letting them rest on her butt. Her head was resting on my shoulder, nuzzling my neck and I was trying to come up with reasons why we shouldn't go over to Vinnie's, but I couldn't come up with anything that wouldn't make me look like a sex addicted coward.

"Wonder what Phoenix is thinking about us."

"Babe."

"What? It's his first day and he already saw us going at it, he heard the banter about Les and that I've got a date with Tank. What's he supposed to think other than that I'm totally crazy and he just accepted a job with a bunch of lunatics."

"Babe."

"You know, now that you're my fiancé you're required to actually answer when I ask you something." When she said fiancé her whole face lit up and it made my heart swell. I'd been so stupid for such a long time and had come close to never experiencing this total bliss I felt now. I tipped her chin up so I could kiss her. The kiss was so intense I lost myself in it, not even noticing that the elevator had reached its destination.

The next thing I was aware of was my phone vibrating against my hip. Breaking the kiss to answer the call I saw it was Tank calling.

"Yo."

"You might want to get out of the elevator now." With that he hung up. I looked up and realized that the doors had already opened and Brett and Woody were staring at us.

"Don't catch flies, guys," Steph tossed at them, freeing herself from my embrace and walking over to the Turbo.

I raised my eyebrow at her. There just was no way she should know which set of keys I had grabbed today.

"Don't look at me like that. You always take the Turbo when we go to the office but come back here directly afterwards."

I never knew I was that easily found out, but that also meant that people who meant us harm could get a handle on our plans just by the car I drove. I helped Steph into the car before getting in myself, still mulling over what she'd just said.

We made the drive to the office in silence. Steph was probably planning on how to evade Lula and Connie's questions whereas I was trying to work out when I'd become so predictable. I'd always prided myself on being hard to figure out, but Steph had no trouble doing so, probably never had, as long as it didn't involve our feelings towards each other.

I pulled to the curb in front of Vinnie's, gave Steph a quick kiss and got out of the car to walk around and assist Steph out as well. Laying my arm around her I led her into the office.

When we walked in, Connie's and Lula's mouths dropped and they stared at us. We made quite a picture, I was sure. In bad ass black, with mirrored shades and leather jackets that revealed the hardware, we looked like we were ready to take over a country. But it shouldn't be a new vision for them.

"Ladies." I nodded at them and then made my way into Vinnie's inner sanctum. Let's just hope there was still Lysol in the glove compartment.

Vinnie droned on and on about one skip or another but I tuned him out. That was always the best and easiest way to deal with him, let him believe he's the boss and then do it my way. I was thinking about what I would like to do to Steph once we got back to the apartment when I heard her voice come over a speaker. Stupid weasel had bugged the office again.

"I'm not gonna tell you, Lula."

"Skinny white girl, you know you want to tell me."

That was something I had to witness, so I grabbed the files, silently got up and made to enter the front office. Vinnie started to complain but I silenced him with a sharp look. Our business was finished anyway.

I quietly opened the door and stepped through, but neither of the three women seemed to notice my entrance.

The next was Connie to try her luck and persuade Steph. "Come on, Steph. You know you can trust us. We won't tell anyone."

Steph snorted and I was right with her as Connie just told a lie if I ever heard one.

"Yeah, right. I won't even have gotten in the car when you start spreading the news." Both Connie and Lula had a slight red tinge to their faces. Connie was studying the toe of her shoe while Lula was almost gnawing her nails.

"You at least gonna tell us if you've already used some of what your Granny gave him?" Seemed like Connie was getting desperate.

"Yep."

"Yep as in you're gonna tell us, or yep as in we used some of it already?"

"Yep." My Babe was getting better at evading questions. Seemed like she'd picked up one thing or another while working with my guys.

"So Connie, when's your date with Lester?" Lula gasped at the question. It made me wonder how Les had managed to talk to Connie without witnesses.

"Was that what the donut run was about? And the phone call that had you grinning like a silly girl? And the blushing when I came back?"

During Lula's rant Connie had sunk down low in her chair, admitting defeat in the process.

"Next week on Friday."

"And you weren't going to tell us? Who do you think you are, huh?"

If I was Connie, I'd be afraid of Lula right now.

"I was gonna tell you, but I thought we'd work Steph over first."

"Hmpf. Now spill it girl, before I decide to bust a cap up your ass. As long as her man's with Vinnie she won't go anyway. Spit it out."

"I really have to tell you?"

"Don't try to talk your way out of it, Connie. I spill my guts every time you ask. Now it's your turn."

"I can't believe you guys never noticed a thing. He's been in to get the files often enough."

That Steph didn't know about Les' visits to the bonds office didn't surprise me as she was in the field with Lil most of the time, and very successful too. That Lula didn't notice though surprised me.

"Every RangeMan comes in once in a while," Lula accused.

"Lester comes in at least twice a week."

"Oh."

"Did he tell you where he's gonna take you?" Steph wanted to know.

I just hoped he would take her to a nice place, like Rossini's or Marsillio's. I wanted the both of them to be happy and by taking her to Shorty's he sure wouldn't win her.

"He just said it would be dinner and dancing. Probably Salsa." Sounded to me like he had one of those smaller, cozier places in mind.

Steph piped up at Connie's answer. "We need to go shopping. You need a new dress, shoes, lingerie, a manicure."

Lula nodded her assent, being surprisingly silent for the moment.

"When?"

Steph tapped her chin with a forefinger, scrolling through her mental calendar. "Not today. Tank's going to show me a new move and my mom ordered us over for dinner. But what about tomorrow?" She looked from Connie to Lula and both nodded their heads. "Guess that's settled then."

I took that as my cue to reveal my presence.

"You almost ready to go, Babe?"

Lula and Connie gasped, but Steph just turned her head and smiled at me. It shouldn't surprise me that she'd known I was there; she can feel my presence just as I can feel hers.

"Sure. Let's go or I won't have time for lunch."

"Babe."

I walked over and pulled her to me, dropped a quick kiss on her lips before we made our way out of the office. Steph called a "bye" over her shoulder. Good enough.

We approached the car and after a quick glance around I opened the car door for Steph. She got in silently and I closed her door before I went around to get in myself.

I turned the car back towards Haywood.

"You survived?"

* * *

Constructive critcism is appreciated! Thanks.


	7. Chapter 7

_I don't own them, I don't make any money off of this and I only write for my (and hopefully your) entertainment. I promise to return the characters to the author unscathed. No copyright infringement intended._

_Thank you, Kat, for betaing for me. You did an awesome job!_

_SMUT!_

Birthday Surpirses

by Katrin

Chapter 7

Stealing a quick glance at Steph I could see the big grin splitting her face.

"Yup. Good thing we knew Les was going to ask Connie out or I might have had to spill the beans. Apparently Les called ahead and Connie sent Lula on a donut run. Lula wasn't happy to say the least." Sounded like I had missed some of their conversation.

Steph placed her hand on my thigh again, rubbing circles with her thumb. Before it drove me completely out of my mind I clamped my hand down over hers, effectively stilling her motions.

"Stop it if you want to live to get married."

I looked at her again and she was grinning her version of the wolf smile at me.

"Distracting you from your zone?"

"Babe."

After that we made the rest of the drive in silence. Back at RangeMan we had a quick snack before Steph went to get changed for her session with Tank and I made my way into my office. I had phone calls to make.

The first one was to Luis, setting in motion a plan I'd put together while we'd been busy in the conference room that morning. He assured me that he'd see to it.

The next calls were to my offices in Boston, Atlanta and Miami to ensure that everything was running smoothly. I'd have to go down to Miami sometime, but it was nothing that required my immediate attention, so maybe we could somehow connect it with the cruise.

Phone calls finished, I went back to my paperwork, doing anything to keep busy while Steph and Tank were tossing each other around in the gym. I resisted the urge to go and observe as both of them would tell me later how it went. Hell, I wouldn't even have to go down, I could just pull up the security feed to my computer, but somehow Moxie would know and I'd never hear the end of it.

Once the paperwork was done, I spent the remainder of the afternoon planning on how and when to use all the stuff from Edna. She sure could be scary sometimes.

Time flies when you're having fun, so I didn't realize how late it was until Steph stepped into my office, all ready to face the inquisition at her parents'. Or at least as ready as she was going to get.

"Ready to head out, Ric?"

"Just let me grab my gun." She grinned knowingly at me. Doing a quick sweep I counted at least two guns and two knives on her trim form, so she was in no place to complain.

I grabbed the necessities and we made our way down the stairs.

"How was your session with Tank, Babe?"

"He showed me the move, but I changed it a little bit so it's more effective. Afterwards I took him down to throw some knives."

"How's he doing?"

"He's slowly getting the hang of it. I've got no idea why you guys always played pool and never darts. It would make it so much easier."

"True, but we'll have to learn it the hard way."

Steph chuckled and, looking down, I caught the mischievous gleam in her eyes.

"I have so much fun teaching you guys."

We got in the car and made the way to her parents in comfortable silence. Pulling up to the curb I saw Ellen and Edna already standing at the porch, awaiting our arrival. Thankfully I couldn't see Val's van anywhere.

"You ready for this, Babe?"

"Nope, but let's do it anyway."

I got out of the car and walked around to Steph's side, opening her door for her. I assisted her out of the car while her mother was following my every move with hawk's eyes.

As we walked up to the door I had my arm around Steph's shoulder, just like usual.

"Hi Mom, Grandma."

***

We made it back to the apartment around 9.30 pm, and I was happy to get home. Home. The apartment hadn't felt like home until Steph came to live with me. I'd never realized it, but I knew now that my apartment had just been a place to crash, to get the sleep my body demanded. It had been cool and serene and looked a lot like a hotel room. Now you could actually see who was living in our apartment. It felt now warm and lived in, thanks to Ella's and Steph's job decorating it. There was a fleece blanket thrown over the back of the couch, throw pillows on the couch and a lot of framed pictures, some hanging on walls, others standing on sideboards. They were of Steph and me, Julie, our guys, me in the army, Steph with the team that trained her. And my favorite of all was the one TK had taken on her first day in Mexico, just as we were jumping out of a plane and Steph was really flying for the first time.

They had done a wonderful job.

And now, walking into our apartment after dinner at the Plums, the peace and quiet that greeted us were even more welcome.

I led Steph into the kitchen, depositing the doggy bag into the fridge and then straight through into the living room. I sat down on the couch, pulling Steph into my lap. She sought out the remote control for the sound system, turning it on to slow sensual jazz and then cuddled into me.

I was content sitting there with Steph on my lap, snuggled into me, just the two of us.

Steph moved so she was sitting astride me, her legs alongside mine, and facing me. One hand was kneading my neck, while she placed the other around my back to be as near as possible. She was nuzzled her face into my neck and I could feel her soft warm breath blow against my skin.

I pressed my nose into her hair, soaking up the scent that's uniquely Steph, of Bulgari, her shampoo and her own personal scent, a heady and addictive combination. I let my hands roam over her back, stroking the tension out of it. Letting out a sigh Steph relaxed further into me getting even closer if it was at all possible.

Steph started placing whisper soft kisses on my neck, barely touching me and at the same time covering as much ground as possible, as much as she could reach. I let my hands remain still on her back, letting her do whatever she wanted while only holding her to me. It was her show to run.

Trailing kisses up and down my neck and jaw she finally landed on my lips. She kissed me, and I mean really kissed me. She was aggressive and demanding, something I didn't get to see very often, but within seconds the desire flared through me and I felt myself getting hard. Steph was trying to scoot closer to me, trapping my arousal underneath her. It was getting too much for me and I couldn't keep my hands to myself any longer.

I took hold of her head with one hand, angling it to take the kiss deeper, while I started to explore her body with the other one.

Her full breast fit just right into the palm of my hand, her rigid nipple poking my palm. I rubbed it a little, making it even harder and coaxed a moan out of Steph in the process.

Things were really heating up and before long I had both of us stripped down and sitting back on the couch, pulling Steph into my lap again.

"Let me inside you, Babe."

She shifted her hips a little and I slipped inside her heat, stilling all movement for a moment.

"You feel so good, Babe."

"Hmm."

"You're so beautiful." And she really was. Eyes closed, a healthy blush to her cheeks, her lips slightly parted as she panted out her breath. Her eyes slowly opened and she smiled.

"So are you, Ric."

I began to move inside her, slow rocking motions meant to drive both of us insane with need.

Steph started kissing me again and tried rubbing herself against me, probably trying to get me to move.

"Shh, calm down, Babe. We've got all night."

I anchored her tighter against me stilling all movement. I kept her close when I started rocking us slowly again, keeping my movements deliberately slow and steady.

We kissed again and this time the kiss held nothing of the frenzy from earlier. It spoke of love. We kept our eyes open, looking deep into each other's eyes, each other's souls. Her eyes were a dark sparkly blue and I couldn't help but think how truly lucky I am.

"Love you, Babe."

"Love you, too."

Our movements got slightly larger, slightly faster and I brought my hands around to Steph's front, tending to her breasts. I pinched her nipples between my fingers and her eyelids dropped.

"Keep your eyes open."

"So hard."

I kept us moving for quite some time, and when I brushed a finger against her clit she was barely coherent. Steph didn't even moan anymore. All her movements had ceased, she was clinging to me, swept along by my movements.

I had a hard time holding back, the sensations nearly overwhelming me as I kept us rocking back and forth in minuscule movements.

Steph's arms were just looped around my neck, unable to do anything but holding onto me and even that seemed to be a hardship for her.

I felt the wave coming, building up at the edges of my conscious, sending tingles through my whole body, coming nearer with every thrust I made. But I wanted my Babe to come first.

So I kept the circles on her clit up, pressing against it just the way I knew she liked it and before long she shattered in my arms. I felt her contracting around me, her muscles holding me in a vice like grip her orgasm washing over her as she whispered my name.

I stopped my movements but kept brushing against hr clit, and when I felt the grip her muscles had on me lessen, I started rocking us again, just slowly to keep her going. I knew that when her next orgasm hit I wouldn't be able to hold back. I felt the skin around my balls tighten, drawing them up, getting ready to blow my load into her.

When she hit the pinnacle again I followed Steph over the brink, her muscles contracting around me, milking me, and I lost all coherent thought. Fireworks exploded behind my closed eyelids as tremors ran through my body. I heard myself groan dimly, like from far away, just barely audible above the soft jazz still playing in the background, while I was engulfed in the sensations, the rush that always came when I was together with my Babe.

I looked at Steph. Her eyes were closed and her head tilted back, she was smiling, just a small gentle smile that tugged at her features.

When I could breath normally again I picked Steph up without a word and cradled her in my arms, and despite how close I was holding her, she kept trying to get closer.

I walked over to our bed and put her down beneath the comforter, following immediately. I laid down beside her and pulled Steph toward me. She cuddled into my side as I pulled the comforter over us. The last thought running through my mind before sleep engulfed me was what a lucky bastard I must be to have such a great woman love me.

When I got up the next morning it was way past our normal waking time and Steph was still sleeping. I let her as we'd really taken it out of each other these last few days.

I went down to the gym, taking clothes with me, intending to take a shower and get ready in the locker room so I wouldn't disturb Steph's sleep.

I finished my run and showered before wandering into the break room where Ella had set out breakfast for my crew. Tank was already at the table when I walked in. He looked up at me with a questioning look on his face.

"What's going on? She throw you out?"

"No. I let her sleep in today. She's exhausted."

"Been too busy celebrating to sleep, huh? It's not like Moxie to slack off."

"Not really, but we've celebrated quite a bit. And we were over to her parents' last night."

That was when the door opened and the rest of the core team walked in, excluding Steph. The guys settled down and Tank looked at me to continue what I'd been saying.

"It wasn't too bad. Her sister wasn't there so it was actually pretty quiet."

"Ellen gave you hell?"

"Not really. She was raving and ranting a little at first, but then she just sat down and said "Well, I'm glad the two of you are finally getting married." And that was the end of it."

They looked at me in surprise.

"What about Frank?" Lil wanted to know.

"I asked him for his permission about two weeks ago, and he was fine with it. Said he was just happy it wasn't Morelli she was marrying."

"Any comments from our Granny from Hell?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah, wanted to know if we needed more condoms, as she would be happy to prepare a care package for us. Thankfully Ellen quieted her down."

Just then the door opened again and in walked none other than Steph herself.

"How come I didn't get an invite to the party?"

She walked over to me gave me a kiss good morning and settled down in my lap.

"I wake up and roll over, and what do I find? Cold sheets."

"Babe."

"What? I wanted to continue where we left off last night."

"Damn Babe. You didn't need to tell me now."

"Whining is unmanly." Before I knew it, she was on Lester's case. "So Les, tell us about your plans for the date with Connie."

"Are you fucking serious?"

"You bet I am. You guys keep track of my circle, ask me if I'm up to date on my birth control shots. You don't really expect me to respect your privacy, do you?"

Snickers were heard around the table, but she had a point here. The guys even went so far and reminded her when she needed a new shot.

Les tried the puppy dog eyed look, but it didn't fool Steph.

"Oh no, don't even think about it. Spill your guts or I'll make you do it."

Lil spoke up. "You know she's not making idle threats, so you better answer, pal." Les looked actually pale now.

"All right, I give. What do you want to know?"

"Everything. Just tell us everything." Steph settled down in her own chair to start munching the cereal Lil had placed in front of her.

The others leaned back to watch the show. Steph had the floor now.

"I asked her out."

"Well duh. Tell me something I don't already know. Like where you're gonna take her, what present you'll give, what did you plan for after dinner?"

"Planned to take her to Shorty's." From the way he looked I could tell he wasn't serious, but Steph failed to interpret his expression right.

"Just how often did your parents drop you when you where a kid? Or did you bump your head too often on one of your mission? Did you smoke something? Or do you just need a good ass kicking? I thought you were serious about Connie? She deserves better than you. I suggest you think about your choice of location again or I'll tell her to cancel your date." She was flailing her hands all over the place and picking up speed as she went.

"You're a god damn fool for thinking you can get her that way. She's already got a crush on you and I thought I knew you better. You don't have half as much brain as I thought you had."

She turned around to look at me. "Just way did you hire someone as stupid as him? He deserves to be shipped off to some third world country and if you don't take care of it I'll see to it."

"Steph!"

"You fool, you don't deserve her."

"MOXIE!"

"What?" From the looks of it she was ready to bite his head off or hand him his balls on a platter.

"I was kidding."

"What?" She looked at him in stunned disbelief.

"I was kidding. I planned to take her to Rossini's, but I thought a little bit more privacy might be better. I know of a small salsa place a friend of mine owns. It's cozy, it's got good food and a live band. Good enough?"

"I can't belief it. I thought you were fucking serious. I'm still mad at you, you know."

She ate a few spoons of cereal before she addressed him again. "Meet me in the gym in thirty minutes. You deserve an ass kicking. But I want to finish my breakfast first."

One year ago that would have cracked up all of us. Now it was something to take damn serious. All my men knew it and all did her best to stay in her good graces.

Steph looked at me. "Grandma Mazur mentioned something about needing someone to take her to a viewing. Think Lester's the man for the job?"

"Babe."

"What. He deserves it."

"Remember you wanted to take him shopping with you girls today. Might not mesh well with the viewing."

"Gimme a sec."

She whipped out her cell phone and before I knew it she was calling her mom.

"Hi Mom."

"I know it's you. Remember, I called you."

"Yes, I'll tell him. Is Grandma there."

"Yes, I'll wait."

"Hi Grandma."

"The viewing you wanted me to take you. Is the guy laid out tomorrow as well?"

"Yes? That's great. A friend of mine wants to take you, but he's incapacitated today."

"Sure. He'll pick you up at 6."

"Bye."

She closed her phone and looked at Lester. "Guess that's settled then. Grandma expects you at 6 sharp."

"Babe."

"What? I couldn't let him get away with it. And she'll do a much better job at teaching him not to tease me. And Lester," she turned to him, "wear a cup."

"All right. Plan for the day?" Tank looked at me expectantly.

"Paperwork for you." He groaned.

"Bobby, you'll start training Phoenix today, Les you get your ass kicking from Steph, during which Lil will catch up on paperwork. The three of you have some skips to catch and I expect you back here at 1400 hours. There's a shopping trip planned. I'm in meetings until about then. Lil, you'll help Bobby when you guys get back."

After a last kiss with Steph I stood up to let them finish breakfast, but I needed to get ready for my day as corporate Ranger. I had potential clients to meet.

I headed out not ten minutes later to meet the first candidate on his home turf. I preferred to do things that way as it always gave me a feeling for what we'd be dealing with.

Both clients were no problem and we signed the contracts. We agreed that I'd sent Hector and his partner of the day over to work out a plan for what kind of security they'd need and where.

That taken care of I made my way back to Haywood to meet my fiancé to go shopping. And I was right on time.

When I pulled into the garage Steph and Lester were already waiting for me. Les seemed to be a little worse for wear but I was sure that there would be nothing more than a few bruises and some sore muscles. Waiting as well was Zip. Made me wonder what he'd done to deserve the shopping trip. I parked the car and got out. Steph was already standing next to my door. After a quick kiss "hello" I pulled back.

"What's Zip doing here. I believe he's supposed to be on monitor duty today."

"He was. Until he thought laughing at Les about his date with Grandma was fun. I decided that he deserved a little fun as well. Figured we needed someone to help carry all the bags anyway."

"Babe."

"He was laughing about a member of the management. You didn't expect me to let that slide did you."

"Thinking about it. No. Now let's go." She was definitely right. If he was stupid enough to laugh about someone from management he deserved more than just a shopping trip.

We were just walking over to one of the Broncos when my pager went off. Looking at it I saw it was a page from Woody. I called him back immediately, having a feeling that something had gone wrong with a bust.

"Yo."

"What's going on?"

"Skip shot at us, Ram got nicked in the arm. Skip took one to the shoulder."

"Collateral damage?"

"None. I need someone to take care of the cops. Need to take them to hospital."

"Done. Get them taken care of."

"The cops know to expect you and gave their okay for me to leave."

Closing my phone I saw Steph whipping out hers.

"I'll take care of it and the three of you'll go shopping."

"No. I'm head of bond enforcement. It's my job to take care of it. Anyone hurt?"

"I know. And you do a damn good job, but you've got the afternoon off. I'll take care of it and then try and catch up with you at the mall. Ram got nicked in the arm, Woody's fine. Skip's gonna need surgery though."

"All right. Try to make it quick, okay?"

I kissed her again then sprinted up to the control room to gather some paper work I'd need. I had Cal draw up the last location of Woody's Bronco before I was on my way again.

Upon arriving at the scene, a cop was waiting for me. Taking a closer look at him I saw it was Morelli. This promised to get interesting.

* * *

Any thoughts, ideas, sugestions? Please let me know and thanks for reading.

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

_I don't own them, I don't make any money off of this and I only write for my (and hopefully your) entertainment. I promise to return the characters to the author unscathed. No copyright infringement intended._

_Thank you, Kat, for betaing for me. You did an awesome job!_

Birthday Surpirses

by Katrin

Chapter 8

I got out of my car and nodded at him.

"Manoso," Morelli ground out between his teeth, "what the fuck happened here?"

"Cut it out. You already took their statements. All you need me for is the paperwork."

"Why isn't Steph here? Isn't it her job? Or isn't she working anymore? Got her knocked up already?"

"I said it once and I'm not gonna repeat it. Cut. It. Out. She's got the afternoon off, and so had I until I got a call from Woody. So take a look at the papers and then move on with your life. Steph doesn't need you to complicate things and she isn't going to come back to you. We got engaged two days ago. So just move on. Find someone else to love and leave Steph alone."

"Wow. The mighty Manoso is capable of talking. Never thought I'd see the day."

"Just admit defeat and start looking for a wife. But keep in mind that Steph won't be the one."

"That won't be the end of it." He turned around and walked to his rusty, police issued Fairlane.

I got in my car as well, on my way to the hospital to check up on Ram. I wasn't really interested in the skip's well being. Sure, unhurt is a lot easier, but he'd started shooting. And people knew that I didn't take kindly to one of mine getting hurt. That went for Steph, as well as all my employees. Most skips took thati nto account before they did something stupid like shooting at one of us. And Steph could be even worse than me when it came to taking care of what's hers. The guy could be happy that Steph wouldn't get her fingers on him or he'd be in much more pain than he was now.

At the hospital I got a parking space right next to the ones reserved for handicapped, got out and walked into the hospital. Various trips to St. Francis, most of them involving Steph, have made me familiar with the floor plans. I walked into the walking room to find Woody waiting. Without a word from me he started talking before I even sat down.

"We went to pick up Rockolls over on Stark. I went around the back and Ram took the front."

"Were you wired for sound?"

"No. Anyway, I was about to go in when I heard gunshots and screaming, so I raced back to the street. Ram already had him on the ground and in cuffs."

"Did you hear anything else?"

"No. The gunshots really surprised me."

"Okay. Any word on them yet?"

"Ram was taken back to get stitches. They threw me out when the doc got the thread ready and Rockolls was taken into surgery to clean up the wound but he'll be fine as well. I already arranged for custody and talked to the doc. If there aren't any complications we can deliver him to lock up tomorrow."

"Good. Can you take it from here?"

"Yes. You aren't mad at us?"

"Why should I be mad at you? You did nothing wrong. I'll decide if I'm mad at Ram when I talk to him. But that's gonna have to wait. Steph's waiting for me at the mall."

Woody chuckled and I left.

I was on my way to the mall when I got another call.

"Yo."

"Tank here. I need you to come back. Problems with paper work I can't take care of."

"Be there in ten."

I hung up only to call Lester.

"Santos."

"I won't make it. Tank needs my help at the office. I expect a detailed report on my desk at lunch tomorrow. From both of you."

"Done."

I hung up again when I was already in sight of the office building.

I spent the rest of the day helping Tank sort through tax paperwork.

"What happened to the accountant?"

"Called in sick, but we need to have those papers ready in three days, so I figured better start early."

We got back to work and before I knew it, Lester and Zip were walking in with all the women save Val in tow. Thank God for small favors. Les took them into the break room and, glancing at the monitors in the control room, I saw that Cal and Hal were busy taking several bags up to the apartment. At least a quarter of them were the telltale pink.

I made my way into the break room, curious. Before I could say anything Steph spoke up.

"How's Ram?"

"Barely needed a band aid. Woody brought him back about two hours ago. Bobby already tucked him in, so no need to worry."

"Good. Painkillers knocked him out, huh?"

I made my way over to Steph to stand beside her. It was actually pretty funny. She was sitting with her back to a corner, the door right in her sight. I didn't think the girls noticed, but I did.

"Yep."

"He gonna need PT?"

"No. Just got scratched. Skip was a lousy shoot, Ram wasn't. Even injured."

"Good. Guess what?" Steph was beaming at me, like she knew the mysteries of the world.

"You bought half of Victoria's Secret?"

"Damn. Just how did you know that?"

"Cal and Hal are carrying it all up to the apartment as we speak." I dropped a kiss on her head before I decided we'd be more comfortable with her sitting on my lap.

"Tell me about your shopping spree."

They all started giggling and Les turned a crimson red. Wonder what's up with that.

"Les, you gonna tell me, or do I need to ask someone else?"

Before he could talk Steph started although laughter was shaking her body.

"Les was very interested in what Connie was trying on."

"Yeah, tried peeking around the curtain all the time." That from Lula.

"He tried to help me get into the lingerie I was selecting, but I tried to shove him out."

"From the look on Lester's face I'd say there's something else you're not telling me."

The laughter got louder and Bobby and Lil walked in, intend on finding out what was going on.

"Yep. The sales lady, who was making goo goo eyes at Zip by the way, threw him out of the store. Told him to satisfy his needs elsewhere."

By now Steph was laughing so hard I had to be careful or she'd fall to the floor in laughter.

"Les, I didn't think you'd want to get your ass kicked twice in one day."

Connie's head whipped around. "Twice. Just what did he do to get it whipped the first time?"

Steph chose to answer her. "I won't tell you why, but I can tell you I did it properly."

"You kicked his ass."

Steph just shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. Les wasn't the first person whose ass she'd kicked and he probably wouldn't be the last one either.

They continued teasing Lester, but I wasn't really listening. I was busy making plans on what we needed to do before we went on the cruise. One of the things to discuss was certainly how we wanted to get married, when and where. And we needed to pick up our workouts again. I'd a feeling the government would call us in sooner rather than later and for that we needed to be prepared. We should probably practice packing our backpacks as well. It was extremely important to be able to put it all together in well under fifteen minutes, but Moxie wasn't that fast yet. Something to keep in mind.

At one point Ella came down with dinner, grilled chicken breasts with brown rice and grilled vegetables in a light sauce. The women were a little skeptical at first but when they saw how Steph was digging in they followed suit.

Steph's moans of delight filled the room and my men were looking pained. I could feel my pants getting tighter than usual and if I had to guess I'd say my men had the same problem. Hopefully they knew better than to ever act on it, because I'm sure Moxie would hand them their balls on a platter.

That reminded me that I still needed to watch the footage on Les' ass kicking, but there would be time for that tomorrow.

When I zoned into the conversation again the ladies were planning a night out on the town and discussing who would be the designated driver. Knowing Steph she wouldn't want to go into a bar without backup.

"Steph, pick one to drive you." Her head swiveled around to look at me.

"Just how did you know?"

"I know you."

"So girls, who do you want to drive us?" She spoke to the room at large.

Just as Lula set out to answer Hal burst through the door. "Moxie, we've got a line on one of the high bonds. He's holed up in a bar. Can you do a distraction?"

"Sure. When and where?"

"Blue Moon Bar, twenty minutes ago."

Already in motion she tossed "Give me twenty." over her shoulder and raced up to our apartment to start the beautifying process. I stayed where I was, knowing I'd only distract her in her preparations.

The girls were busy discussing who to pick for a driver for their night out, so I got up and got the equipment ready. I told Hal to get a file ready for Moxie to look over and went back into the break room. Just as I was about to enter, exactly twenty minutes after Steph left, the beep of the elevator signaled her arrival.

I turned around and as the door opened my breathing ceased. She looked stunning, dressed in a black skirt that stopped about half thigh, just long enough to cover a thigh holster even when she was sitting, and swirled around her legs, together with a light blue neck holder top the same color as her eyes that revealed just enough cleavage to make any man drool. She'd topped it off with incredibly high black pumps that made her legs seem endless. Her hair was hanging loose down to her shoulders and her make up was light, just enough to make her eyes stand out.

It might have not been visible to the casual eye but I could see that she was carrying at least part of her usual hardware. One of her guns was in a thigh holster and a second gun was tucked into her clutch, together with a pair of cuffs and a stun gun.

Lester whistled when he saw her, but the look she threw him obviously reminded him that she wasn't afraid to throw him on his ass. Grinning sheepishly he offered her his arm to lead her into the break room. I went ahead of them, curious to see the women's expressions when they saw Steph in her usual distraction attire.

I had no idea how much they knew about this job of Moxie's, but they were about to get the crash course.

Upon Steph entering the room several jaws dropped and eyes bugged out.

"Wow, you look gorgeous."

Steph blushed a nice crimson red at the compliment. No matter how often I told her how gorgeous and desirable she is, she always blushed. At least she didn't doubt it anymore.

"Thanks, Mare."

"It's the truth. I have no idea how these distractions of yours work, but from looking at you I'd say it's something like go into a bar, have the guy drool at you and get him out with promises?"

"Something like that."

"Thursday still group sex night, Bombshell?" Bobby grinned at her.

"Ungh, guess I'll never live that down."

"What's up with that, Steph?" Lula wanted to know.

"That's a story for another time. We need to get a move on."

"Can we come and watch the show?" Connie wanted to know.

Steph turned to look at me. In the end it would be her decision if she was comfortable with three of her friends watching her. She got the gist from looking at me.

"All right. You can come, but under no circumstances are you to approach me, to indicate that you know me or otherwise interfering. Who's on the inside tonight, Ranger?"

"Lil and I."

"Okay. Let's go."

We made our way down to the garage, where everyone gathered around Steph and me for a last time.

"Ladies, you go in as soon as we arrive at the scene. Don't forget that you don't know Steph. Don't go near her or I'll make sure you never contact her again. Lil and I'll go in shortly after that."

"Let's head out."

Steph's friends got into the car with Bobby and Lester, Tank and Lil took another truck and Steph was riding with me. On the short ride over to the bar I handed her the file on our skip, Walter H. Covington, convicted for attempted rape and manslaughter. The cream of society.

"We'll all be wired for sound. Just say the word and we'll get you out."

I pulled into the parking lot at the bar.

"Need to wire you, Babe." Before I could say anything else she had moved over and sat in my lap, grinning at me.

"Need to get the mic out of the glove compartment."

She held her hand out, grinning triumphantly. In her hand were the sound devices for both of us. "Already got them."

"Just how did you do that?"

"If I told you..."

"Okay, I get it. Let's get you wired."

I took the wire out of her hand, trying to decide how to wire her and get as much skin contact as I could at the same time. It was a game of ours. I'd make her hot and bothered before she went in, she'd get the skip out in no time and then we'd enjoy the main course in our apartment.

Just the thought of what would be in store for me later got me hard.

"Already thinking about later, huh?"

She wiggled her cute little ass in my lap, doing nothing to improve my state. I pulled her flush against me and kissed her with all I had. Her eyes glazed over and I took the chance to secure the mic under her breast, straying left and right to excite her nipples. She was moaning, her head thrown back. Perfect, just the state I wanted her in.

While she was still dazed I put her back into the passenger seat and made my way into the bar.

It was _a _darkly lit place, music pouring from the speakers There was a small dance floor, but only a handful of people was dancing. The majority of people was scattered throughout the room, sitting in booths or on round tables. It seemed like a place for the after work crowd, but the few women present were dressed similar to Steph. I looked around, taking notice of exits and hidden places, then took a sweep to seek out the skip's position. He was seated at the bar, a dark drink in hand, looking well on his way to being drunk. The ladies were seated in a booth, no doubt instructed by Lil, who was only sitting two booths down, obviously so he could control them.

I took a seat at the other end of the bar from Covington, so I could easily watch him and all the exits that Lil couldn't see.

"Moxie, he's seated at the bar. Right side as you come in. Time to get started," I murmured into my mic.

Getting a Corona from the bar tender, I waited for Moxie to make her way in. Despite the play in the car earlier we were all in work mode now. There was no place for failure or mistakes. The skip was a seriously bad guy, and having Moxie's friends here didn't make things easier.

Just then Moxie walked in and I became aware of the music playing in the background as she sought me out in the crowd.

_If your body matches_  
_What your eyes can do_

Oh yeah, the heat in her eyes was scorching. Looked like I was in for some serious punishment later on, but I was sure we'd both enjoy it.

_A dark lit place_  
_Or your place or my place_

She made her way over to the skip, faking a stumble so she couldn't help but drape herself all over the skip who in turn dropped his glass and spilled the contents.

"Oops, I'm so sorry. How can I make it up to you?"

I couldn't see her face, but I could tell she wore her sex kitten look. Nobody has yet to be proven unaffected by this look of hers, but when the skip looked up at her it looked like her luck was about to change.

"Fuck. You're that bounty hunter bitch."

"What?"

I made eye contact with Lil, he looked as unsettled as I felt. Damn, this job seemed to be doomed.

"You're the Bombshell Bounty Hunter. I know you. I know you're here to take me in, but I'm gonna tell you now you won't take me in. You'll rot in hell before you get me back to prison."

"You have two possibilities. One, you _take the easy way and give in_, or two, you struggle and I'll show you why they call me Moxie now. Or do you prefer Dragon? Both of them are justified and I'd love to give you a demonstration."

He sneered at her and before he could blink he was face down on the bar, hands behind his back and cuffed. Just how had she done that? I hadn't even seen her reach for her clutch.

"You can walk out with me, which wouldn't attract much attention, or you can put up a struggle which might encourage me to leave a bruise or two. But either way, you're going to jail tonight."

"I give in."

"Smart guy. Now get up so I can drape your jacket over your hands."

"Lil, wait a few minutes, then collect the ladies and come outside."

Moxie and Covington were almost to the door when I got up to follow them. When I got outside Moxie was leaning against the car chatting with Bobby, Lester and Tank, the skip secured in Tank's SUV.

When she noticed me coming she looked up and grinned at me.

"Babe."

"What? If I hadn't done anything we'd have gotten a first class bar brawl. Pretty sure that wasn't what you wanted."

"Babe."

"Can you say anything else?"

"Babe."

"Guess I'll have to check you over thoroughlyto make sure everything's okay with you." As she said that her eyes got dark. The guys were snickering at her comment.

"Just what's so funny here?" Lil wanted to know. He'd brought out the ladies and wanted to join in on the fun.

"Later."

"Just what did this guy say to you to get you to react like that?" Lula wanted to know.

"He knew who I was. Doesn't happen often, but if they know me it gets really ugly really fast. Best course of action is usually to threaten them a little."

Mary Lou spoke up. "A little? He was white as a sheet when you dragged him out."

"Guess he heard of Moxie but didn't know it was me until I told him."

"How come you're still doing these jobs, Steph?" Connie was apparently back from her chat with Lester.

"Well, we tried Tank, but him in a skirt just wasn't the effect we were going for." She said it nonchalantly, like it was the natural thing to do for Tank. The guys broke out in a full belly laughter and her lady friends were watching with bewildered expressions.

Tank blushed, a hard feat for a man with his skin tone. Had me wondering just what he and Lula got up to. Probably best I didn't know.

"Babe."

"What. I love the mental image. Maybe we could try Lester next. Don't you think he's got quite female features?"

"Bombshell."

"What Les, don't you want to look pretty?"

Les took a playful swipe at her, but Steph was too quick and he grabbed nothing but air. His training prevented him falling over, but Steph was laughing nonetheless. He set out to chase her and she went to hide behind Lil. Problem was, Lil decided to take sides with his brother instead of his partner.

Lil held her, waiting for Lester to come and get her. As soon as he reached her Les grabbed her and tried to get her into a fireman's carry over his shoulder.

"Stop that," Steph screeched, "you'll flash everyone."

"It's not my ass that's being flashed," Les teased her.

"Do you want to get into trouble?"

"What the hell are you talking about, Bombshell?" He'd put her down again and turned her to face him.

Steph looked up at him, clearly daring him to put her over his shoulder if he wanted to deal with the consequences. It wouldn't be the first time she took one of my men to the mat because of some stunt one or the other had pulled.

He raised a brow, barely visible in the dim light.

"Yep."

Mary Lou spoke up. "What just happened here? She didn't say a single word, but they held a whole conversation."

Bobby turned to her. "That, my friend, is called ESP." He left it at that.

"By the way, Lil, meet me at the gym when Les takes Grandma to her viewing. Or do you prefer accompany them? You're supposed to have your partner's back, not leave her to the enemy."

"Gym sounds fine." Lester looked like he'd give everything he owned to trade places with his brother, but I knew Steph was serious about his assignment. And Les knew better than to try and argue, as it would only make it worse for him. Steph was creative when it came to assignments.

"I hate to break this party up, but there's a skip that needs to be booked."

"Yes, boss."

Tank and Lil mock saluted before getting into the truck with Covington.

The ladies did the female group hug thing before they got into the car with Bobby and Lester. I guided Steph over to my car.

I helped her in and we were on our way. The ride home was silent, and what really surprised me, Steph didn't try and cop a feel or two. Had me seriously wondering what was up with that.

I pulled into the garage, we got out and made our way up to the apartment in silence. Steph had a stern look on her face.

As soon as we'd cleared the entryway her mask dropped. All I could see now was feral desire and arousal.

"Strip!"

"What?"

"I want you to strip, Ranger! It's time for your punishment."

I definitely enjoyed her punishment that night.

* * *

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions? Please let me know and thanks for reading.

* * *


	9. Chapter 9

_I don't own them, I don't make any money off of this and I only write for my (and hopefully your) entertainment. I promise to return the characters to the author unscathed. No copyright infringement intended._

_Thank you, Kat, for betaing for me. You did an awesome job!_

Birthday Surprises

by Katrin

Chapter 9

We'd talked about when and where we were getting married and had both agreed on getting married on the cruise. It would save us a world of hassle and we'd get the wedding we wanted, not what either of our mothers would like to see. This would be about us, not someone else.

The time flew by and it was almost time for us to start packing for our cruise when I began to feel uneasy. The weeks since we'd gotten engaged had been nearly uneventful. There hadn't been any major injuries, just scrapes that didn't take long to heal.

Our days were filled with bringing in skips and doing security work, and Steph training Phoenix with Bobby's help.

One Sunday sometime in the middle of September I had a bad feeling as I woke up. It felt like our peace would be interrupted sooner rather than later.

Steph was still curled around me, so I kissed her to get her moving.

"Morning, Babe."

"Ungh."

"Steph, I've got a feeling that our wedding's gonna have to wait. It's been some time since they last called us in, and I'm afraid they'll call us pretty soon."

"Okay?"

"Last time they gave us a warning a few days before we had to go. I'm sure we'll have to leave at a drop of a hat this time. We should do a few trial runs for you to pack your stuff. Last time it took almost an hour and a half. We won't have that much this time around. I think we should do a trial run. Forget anything important and you might get killed. You've got twenty minutes to pack everything you need. When the time's up we'll see if you'd have survived."

"Sounds good. Can I get dressed first?"

"Counts into the time. You're sleeping and get the call at night. You've got twenty minutes until you have to leave the apartment. Go."

The transformation from sleepy Steph to high alert Moxie was instantaneous. She scrambled out of bed and raced through the bathroom, pulling her hair into a messy ponytail as she was running into the dressing room. So far so good.

She was sleeping naked now most of the time, so that saved a few seconds which she used to get dressed. She scrambled into her panties and sports bra, then yanked a top over her head and cargos up to her hips. She left them unbuttoned for the time being. Good move. Next were her socks and boots and then she started in on attaching her armory, which took about four and a half minutes. Getting armed always took up the majority of the time.

Next she started on her backpack. When I told her the time was up she was standing in the middle of the dressing room, looking unfocused. She was probably trying to figure out what else she'd need.

"Grab your pack and come into the bedroom. Let's check how much you forgot."

When we emptied the backpack I was seriously impressed. She'd forgotten nothing essential. She was dressed ready for action, kevlar vest secured and all the pockets filled with everything she'd need.

Only thing missing was underwear and another warm sweatshirt or two. Closer inspection showed she'd done a great job. She'd even taken care of the anti- mosquito spray that Bobby had issued her after last time's scare. The underwear wouldn't be a serious problem, though it might make her uncomfortable and therefore distract her, but she was professional enough to work around that.

"What about tampons, Babe?"

"In one of the front bags. Put a new package in right after we came back."

"Med Kit?"

"Mini kit is in my vest, there's a bigger one in the other front bag and the serious stuff is in an inside pocket Ella added for me."

"Bombs?"

"Another inside pocket."

"Extra Ammo?"

"I've got a whole bunch of ammo on my belt right now and two magazines for each gun in my pants pockets. There's a lot more in a pouch somewhere."

"Sniper rifle?"

"Hanging from my shoulder right now, but it can be worn with the backpack."

"Do I need to remember something else?"

"Yeah. The steel for my throwing knives is in the pouch with the ammo, just like a big pack of tranq darts. The stars are in their box in the same pouch. I'm wearing the tracker and have called control to activate it. I've got the compass, my watch has new batteries, I've got the tablets to sanitize water and there's a whole bunch of power bars as well as enough food for two weeks at least in my backpack."

Damn, sounded like she was better at that than me.

"The mess kit is attached to my backpack and stored in a way it won't make any noise and won't reflect light and I've got bottles with fresh water. And there's two packs of un-lubricated rubbers to transport water if necessary."

"Damn, I'm speechless." How did she know stuff like that?

"TK had me learn the survival handbook. Can I have breakfast now?"

"Babe." She constantly amazed me. Steph was lounging on our bed and I joined her. She cuddled up to me instantly. I was pretty sure we'd have made a funny picture. Steph dressed to invade some foreign country and I naked.

"You've got me running around before the day even started and then you expect me not to be hungry. You know I'm always hungry."

"You get breakfast in a minute. I'll wake you up once every night to pack your stuff until we're called in. I want you to be sure in what you're doing."

"Okay. What's for breakfast?"

"You could call Ella to bring you something, we could cook something ourselves or we could go out."

"Go out?"

"Go out it is. Where do you want to go for breakfast?"

"Let's drop by my parents. We could visit with Dad until Mom brings back the donuts."

"Babe."

"What? Do you have a better suggestion?"

"You know she'll nag about some thing or other. And she might start planning our wedding."

"Damn. I've got a suggestion. Let Ella sleep in, and we make our run over to the Tasty Pastry and bring back donuts for the guys. Or we could even wake them up and drag them over with us. The guys have been lazy lately and we could eat there."

"Tasty Pastry it is."

I took my turn in the bathroom while Steph changed into her running clothes, shorts and a short tank top. Her tattoos weren't a secret anymore, so she didn't have a problem with showing them off and it was still warm enough to go running like this.

"Wear a shirt, I'm going downstairs to wake the guys." With that Steph was out the door. I had no idea how much she was carrying but I knew it was at least two guns.

When I was dressed I followed her downstairs, only to find four bleary eyed men standing in the hall, looking at Steph like they were thinking about strangling her and Steph parading up and down in front of them.

"Don't complain about having to get up early, Ranger already made me pack my stuff and analyzed whether I'd get killed or not. We've been up for over an hour now. And I gave you enough time to get ready. All you needed to do was take a leak and pull some running shorts up and grab your shoes."

They muttered something and I made the mistake of snorting.

Moxie whirled around. "What? You're the reason I had to get up so early. If you'd let me sleep for another hour or two I'd have called Ella to bring breakfast. But no, you had to drop this bombshell on me. Now suck it up guys. Go get ready, grab your guns and get back here. I have no idea why you're whining anyway. You'll get donuts and Ranger's paying. Remember the last time that happened? No? Because it never happened before. Now go."

A few minutes later Tank, Lester, Lil and Bobby stood in front of Moxie again, this time ready to go running. We did our stretches and then were on our way.

We made the three mile run over to Moxie's favorite bakery in near silence, only Steph and Lil were discussing a skip they'd have to take in that week. The rest of us were in our respective zones, keeping watch. Ever since Moxie first came back from her training she preferred to run on a treadmill in a secure environment, but with the six of us running and her in the middle of our group she felt now safe enough to go outside. She felt unsure because she couldn't arm herself as heavily as she was used to.

When we reached the Tasty Pastry they were just opening up and preparing for the crowd that would come in when mass was over. I'd learned that in the Burg you eat donuts after mass, no matter if you attended or not.

"Sit down, guys. Lil and I'll take care of it." Before I could speak up she answered my question. "Yes, I'll get you some healthy, icky donuts. We don't want to pollute the temple."

"Babe."

The both of them walked up to the sales lady and I couldn't help but admire Moxie's ass. Wearing only her shorts and a sports bra, she was a sight for sore eyes.

"You're staring, boss," Tank admonished me.

"Uh-huh. But she's my fiancée and I'm allowed to." The guys laughed at me, but before they could say anything else Steph and Lil came back, bearing donuts and coffee for everybody. Keeping up her promise she'd bought zucchini muffins for me.

"What the hell is this?" I asked her.

"What? You want healthy, you get healthy. But if you ask nicely I'll share my donuts with you."

With that she took a bite, moaning as the cream filling squished into her mouth. Damn, the sounds she made while eating. Although the guys were mostly used to it by now, they still looked a little pained at Moxie's obvious enjoyment.

Moxie chatted with the core team, discussing one takedown or another. And most of all Lester's dates with Connie.

"Les, tell us about your dates!"

"What?"

"Don't play dumb Les, you know what I mean."

"But Bombshell..."

"I always spill my beans, now it's your turn. Better start talking before I have time to come up with ways to make you."

"Sheesh, why don't you threaten to kill me, huh?"

"Talking's kinda difficult if you're dead. You should know that."

"All right. What do you want to know?"

The rest of the team fell silent, listening to Steph question Les. They all knew that she'd get the most info out of him and it was best not to interrupt her for anything.

"Anything and everything."

"I took her out for dinner, we went dancing, I brought her home, gave her a kiss, left."

"Uh huh. What about the second date? I know you guys had more than one date."

"We haven't had that many dates yet, but I feel like she's the one. She really touches something inside of me."

Moxie smiled at him. "Just make her happy. And remember that you might find yourself with a pair of concrete shoes if you hurt her. She's connected and if that doesn't happen I'll make sure something along those lines happens to you anyway."

Lester gulped, then nodded.

I'd been planning the day, when I remembered the fax I'd gotten the night before.

"We've got a redecoration job scheduled for tonight."

"What?" Moxie asked.

"Redecoration. I got the fax late last night. The landlord has hired us to clear a three bedroom apartment."

"Why tonight?" Lil wanted to know. "Kinda short notice."

"There was some kind of accident last night he doesn't want a repeat of."

"When?"

"23:30 in the hope they'll be asleep. More details later."

We finished our breakfast and started back to RangeMan, looking forward to showers. Moxie pushed the tempo and we were all dripping with sweat when we made it into the elevator.

The guys got off on four and as soon as we were back in our apartment as well, Moxie changed back to Steph. She relaxed and you could see the tension leave her body.

"Want me to show you how good I am in the shower?"

"Race you!"

With that she took off, shedding her clothing as she went. I followed her at a more leisurely pace and detoured into the kitchen to get us some water. We both needed it.

When I stepped into the bathroom I found Steph already in the shower. She was sitting on the built-in bench, the water cascading over her, the shower massager in hand. Damn, there went my good intentions.

I didn't join Steph until she'd satisfied herself, but when I joined her, I showed her again why she usually didn't need a shower massager these days.

When we finally got out of the shower it was on wobbly legs, all pruney but squeaky clean and thoroughly satisfied.

We got ready and by the time we joined the rest of the core team in the smallest conference room it was almost 10:30am. Time flies when you're having fun. Almost as soon as we entered, Moxie made an appearance.

We settled down around the round table, folders with all the necessary information in front of everybody. Time to get down to business.

"Three bedroom apartment on the third floor."

"Uh oh," Moxie muttered under her breath.

"What?" Lil wanted to know. That would be the first redecoration job he'd ever work with Moxie.

"Tank will be happy to tell you. Or just ask your bro." Lil looked confused but indicated for me to go on.

"The apartment's occupied by three couples with different sexual orientations."

"What does that mean?" Bobby wanted to know.

"There's a gay couple, a lesbian couple and the third bedroom is occupied by two guys and a woman, but there are sleepovers every night and nobody really knows how many people sleep there. Other tenants have complained about the noise, the drugs the guests bring with them and the verbal assaults."

Les spoke up. "What do you mean with verbal assaults?"

"There have been rude comments towards elderly and kids, they've offered drugs to the kids and they threatened some tenants."

"When do we get to throw them out?" Tank wanted to know.

"Please no throwing this time."

"Don't be so squeamish, Bombshell."

"Uh huh. Anything more we need to know? Because I'm getting hungry."

"Bombshell, you just ate half a box of donuts. You can't be hungry again."

"Contrary to common belief, there are more forms of workout than what you guys do every day. And I've had a workout since we got back, so shut up Lester or that's the last time we buy you donuts. I'll have you on a twigs and bark diet in no time, just watch out. And remember your date with Grandma." Moxie stood up and left the room. If I didn't know better I'd say the redecoration job was rattling her, but I had no idea why.

We finished the details and I made my way to my office, expecting Steph to be there. She was neither in my office nor in hers, so I walked over to the monitor station in the control room. Cal and Hal were manning the monitors.

"Where did Moxie go?"

"Ella," came the reply from Hal. "She didn't look too happy."

That confirmed my suspicions. If she was in serious need of comfort food something was bothering her big time.

I went up to the sixth floor and found the door to Ella's apartment open. Walking in, I found Steph sitting on a counter licking out a bowl of dough. Probably for cookies or chocolate cake. Ella was standing beside her, whipping up another bowl of dough, but when she saw me she left. Steph was looking miserable, and the bowl and wooden spoon in her hand made her look like a little girl all over again.

I moved over to her, took the bowl and spoon out of her hands to set them down on the counter and enveloped her in my arms. She drew me tighter against her, nuzzled her face into my neck and then started crying. Rubbing big circles on her back I whispered Spanish endearments in her ear, waiting for her to calm down.

When the crying had subsided to sniffles I brought her face up to look at me.

"What's bothering you so much, babe?"

"The job tonight."

"But why?"

"Last time you took me along a junkie flew out a window, Tank got shot and I blew up a building. I'm scared I'll screw this up." She sniffled again.

"You won't screw up. Since we took you along for a job like this the last time you've come a long way. You got training, you can beat Tank's ass, hell you can beat my ass. You won't fall asleep on the job, and you won't have to do a guard shift later."

"Thank God. I'm just afraid someone will get hurt because of me."

Before she could say anything else I pulled her to me and shut her up with a kiss. It had been a long time since Steph had been so insecure, but the one redecoration job she'd worked with us had been bad for her. She never worried that she might get hurt, she was afraid for everybody else first. My men all were afraid she'd get hurt, would all gladly give their life to safe hers. And Steph would do the same for them.

When I pulled back Steph looked a little bit dazed, but her smile was back. "You ready to get back to work? You have Lil's ass to kick today."

"Tell him to meet me in the gym in an hour. I've got some dough to enjoy first."

I chuckled and went back down to my office to take care of paperwork. My accountant was getting on my nerves.

I finished my paperwork and Steph took care of Lil's tendencies to take sides with his brother instead of her. When she'd adjusted his attitude they both went to take their second shower of the day and then went out and dragged a skip back into the system. By 6:30 that night we'd taken another shower and, had had dinner and were now contemplating a nap versus playtime. In the end the nap won.

The alarm clock interrupted our cuddling at 10:30 and we went to get ready. Dressed in black and armed to the teeth we made our way down to the meeting room where the rest of the core team was already waiting for us.

"Let's go." This time we took the stairs down and got into the cars. Bobby went with Lester, Lil and Tank took a car together and Moxie and I.

Two blocks down from the building we were hired to clean up we pulled up to the curb to go over last minute details.

We met between the cars and I pulled vests for everybody out of the cargo area of my truck, as well as wind breakers with 'Security' on them for everybody.

Les took a look at Moxie and chuckled. She caught his eye and the silent conversation thing that she used to hate so much took place.

"I know, I know, Les. I'm no fun because I don't like to get shot and I don't like to get arrested. Shut the fuck up or it's you going through that window this time."

"Huh?" Lil looked at me like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"When we brought Moxie along for her first redecoration job she didn't bring her gun and had all sorts of complaints to try to get out of it. Santos here teased her that she wasn't fun because she didn't like to get shot at or arrested. Later on Tank threw a junkie out of window who was coming with a knife at him. Sadly the guy landed on the fire escape."

"Well, that explains it. But from the looks of it I'd say Moxie at least solved the gun problem." Lil winked at her. And he was right. She was armed to the teeth, and ready to kick ass. At the moment I was just worried it was Lester's ass she was going to kick.

"Anything else I need to know about this first redecoration job of yours, Moxie?"

"Oh well, falling asleep on the job saved me from getting shot, Tank got shot and I nearly blew up but other than that? Nope, nothing I can think of at the moment."

"Smart ass. But now I remember. You told me about it the night we got the hostage out in Ethiopia and were waiting for the others to show up."

"Yep. And you guys like my ass. Now let's get this show on the road."

* * *

Thanks for reading. Kat


	10. Chapter 10

_I don't own them, I don't make any money off of this and I only write for my (and hopefully your) entertainment. I promise to return the characters to the author unscathed. No copyright infringement intended._

_Thank you, Kat, for betaing for me. You did an awesome job!_

Birthday Surprises

by Katrin

"_Yep. And you guys like my ass. Now let's get this show on the road."_

Chapter 10

We did as told and made our way back into the cars. We drove the two blocks into downtown Trenton and parked in the spaces reserved for this occasion.

After a last check of our armory we made we walked into the lobby where the super and the owner were waiting for us with a key. I was sure we'd make an interesting picture, five men and one women, all in black and with kevlar vests, armed to the teeth. Reminded me of the day Moxie was discharged from the hospital after we got back from our mission when we walked into Damirez' office to have words with him.

We lined up in front of them, arms crossed over our chests. Because it was already late we didn't have the sunglasses that complete every outfit. The owner and the super took an involuntary step back as they saw us.

"Evening," the owner said as he stepped in front of me, intending to shake my hand. I kept up my stony face and he stepped back again. Instead we nodded as one and I had to work hard to contain a chuckle. Wasn't often you had a bunch of mercenaries who worked and thought as one.

"Key." The super dropped the key into my outstretched hand.

"How many people are in there tonight?"

"Every bedroom has at least one guest, but we aren't sure." Damn, ten people was too much for us too handle safely.

"10- 4. Tank, call control, have them send out Vince, Woody, Brett, Zero, Binkie and Zip. Have Hal and Cal man the monitors. We'll wait for them," I said to the owner.

"Why?"

"Risk's too high." I left it at that and went to Moxie. "You all right?"

"Uh huh. Who's gonna do the guarding?"

"We've contracted men to do it this time. You don't need to worry."

She nodded and stepped closer, slinging her arms around my waist and I could hear her inhaling. This woman was addicted to my smell, but I wasn't any better.

Fifteen minutes later the other team arrived. I briefed them quickly and we were on our way up to the apartment. We partnered up like we always did, I took point and keyed open the door. A deadbolt prevented me from opening it. I looked at Moxie with a grin.

"You wanna do the kicking?"

Moxie grinned back at me. "Yup."

We all stepped aside to give her room to move and mere seconds later we all filtered into the filthy apartment. The doors leading from the hallway were all closed, so Binkie and Vince took up position right beside the entryway while Brett and Woody checked the room the hallway was opening into.

"Clear. Bathroom and Kitchen are clear."

Lil and Moxie, Les and Bobby as well as Tank and I took up position next to the doors leading from the hallway with one team as backup each.

"On three. One. Two. Three." Simultaneously three doors were pushed open to surprise the inhabitants.

Tank and I had the room with what was supposed to be a threesome, according to the intel we had. What we really found were eight people, all of them naked, all engaged in some kind of sexual activity. Together. There was just one big pile of people, five men and three women. They'd even set up a camera. Sick.

The hadn't even noticed our entrance yet, so we started pulling them from the pile, cuffed them and handed them off to the team behind us. By the time they noticed what was going on we already had half of them out of the room. They not only were high on sex, but on some kind of drug. Their dilated pupils gave them away. Well, their extremely fast reactions gave them away too.

Tank and I worked without talking, removing person after person from the room when I heard yelling coming from another part of the apartment. It was Moxie.

"You sick son of a bitch. Either you do what I'm telling you to do or I'll take care of your balls. Permanently."

The fucker only laughed at her.

Tank and I turned back to our pile and before long we had them all cuffed. They were too out of it to put up much resistance.

We stepped back into the main room where the rest of the team were guarding the tenants.

One guy was still yelling at Moxie and she looked like she was ready to lose it. That would mean serious damage for the guy.

One glare from me and the guy decided to shut the fuck up. We were getting ready to get them out to the cars to carry them to lock up when the guy who'd been yelling around suddenly pulled out a large knife.

"I won't go to jail," he yelled and charged at Moxie.

What the fuck?

She let him get close to her, giving him the impression of being weak. Little did he know.

"Told you," she said, relieved him of his knife first, then grabbed him and threw him through the nearest window.

She looked into the direction she threw him. "Oops, gotta to replace that." She turned to me, trying to look innocent.

"Babe."

"Ranger."

"Moxie, you won't allow me to throw junkies out of windows but then you do it yourself? That's not fair! I always get to throw someone out of a window on these jobs," Tank mock-whined.

"Just take your pick. There's enough to choose from." The other tenants in the room were shrinking back, trying to be invisible. And there certainly were enough people to choose from. In a three bedroom apartment we'd rounded up sixteen people. Fucking unbelievable.

"Babe, you can't just tell Tank to throw somebody out of a window."

"Why not? I'm management!"

"Babe."

"Calm down, boss. I wouldn't have taken her up on it anyway. Now let's get them out of here so the cleaning crew can come in."

Moxie went to the window. After she looked down she started laughing her ass off.

Tank went to join her and he started laughing too, a deep laugh that was characteristically Tank.

"What's going on?"

"Three guesses as to where he landed."

"Fire escape."

"Yup. Knocked the wind out of him." We chuckled.

"Now let's get back to work."

The tenants were looking more frightened by the minute and we made short work of them. I'd called the police so they were waiting for us with a dozen cruisers and two dozen officers. After checking the IDs we knew that four of them were wanted for one offense or another, and three others were out of jail on probation. The rest of them would be charged now, but the owner would take care of it.

When we stepped out of the apartment for the last time that night the cleaning crew was already waiting, as well as the four guards I'd hired for the first shift.

"All right, let's get out of here, our job's done."

We fell into bed exhausted that night, too tired to do anything else. I'd set my alarm clock for 3:30 am, so Moxie could do the packing trial while she was tired. I pulled her back to my front and fell asleep to the sound of her even breathing.

Less than an hour later my watch alarm woke me and I shook Moxie awake.

"What?"

"You've got twenty minutes."

She immediately jumped out of bed and started packing her back pack.

Seventeen minutes later she was standing in front of me, slightly panting but dressed for action and smiling.

"Love you, Babe."

"Love you, too. Now let's get started so I can get back into bed. I'm tired."

Just as I was starting to take her bag apart Cal came bolting into our bedroom.

"Oh. Chopper's landing in twenty-five." He saluted and left again.

That spurred me into action and now it was my turn to run. I ran into my home office to the fax machine. There was a fax waiting for us, but I didn't read it. Instead I thrust it into Moxie's hands.

"Read it aloud while I pack."

"Going to Bolivia, there's word that the gun runners having plans for a new rocket launcher. They'll distribute large quantities to a terrorist group in the middle east. Got to find out what, how, who, where and when. We're to get the plans for the rocket launcher, but leave altered ones, preferably so it'll blow up in their faces. No unnecessary eliminations."

"Where?" We were both pulling out the woodland camouflage, but there would still be black clothes as well. We never knew what kind of cover we'd need and use.

"They included a map with an area to start looking in, about two hundred and fifty square miles."

"You've got everything? Radio system?"

"Yup." She checked the pockets of her BDUs again and nodded.

"Let's go."

We went up to the roof where the chopper was already waiting for us, rotors still going and the doors were open. The noise was deafening.

I gave Moxie the sign to stay low and we nearly crawled to the door so we wouldn't get hit. Once there the packs I threw the packs into the chopper, next was Moxie to climb in and I brought up the rear. Once in I pulled the door shut and then put on my helmet.

I looked at Moxie to see her grinning at me.

"Moxie."

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The weather's clear and sunny and we expect it to be a calm flight... if you don't count the terrorists shooting at us. Today's flight attendant called in sick, but if one of you would like to fly this birdie here I'll be sure to make you some coffee. Please enjoy the flight and thank you for flying with Delta Rescue."

Moxie, sitting to my right, snorted.

"Morning Tommy, how's it hanging?" We had served in the Rangers together.

"Good. It's you and the beautiful lady beside you who're going to Bolivia and staying there, not me. You gonna introduce us?"

"Sure. Moxie, the pilot is Tommy, we've served together. The possum beside him is Mic. Guys, that's Moxie."

Moxie spoke up. "Before you start, I know I'm skinny and I don't look like your typical bad ass but I'm Moxie all the same. If you want a demonstration I'd suggest you land your bird first."

"Got you one with spunk this time around, huh?" Tommy wanted to know.

"Ever heard of the Bombshell Bounty Hunter?"

"Sure."

"That's me. Do you have more information for us?"

"Why are you asking?"

"I had one hour of sleep before certain people had to wake me up to train packing my stuff, only minutes before we got the fax. I'd like to catch some more shut-eye."

"Sure. You guys got parachutes or want the ones I packed?" Mic asked.

"You packed them or just threw them into your baby?"

"Packed them myself. Newest technology available at the moment. They only weigh three and a half pounds, so you can take them with you."

"We'll take yours." Mainly because we didn't have any. If you were to be dropped you were provided with chutes. That was just the way it was. And it was a huge plus that they were so light. Chutes make good tents if you don't have anything else for shelter.

"Under your seats."

"Why?" The army chutes weigh over fifty pounds a piece and it's impossible to drag them around.

"When I heard who you're going after I grabbed these. Figured you might need them."

"Thanks."

"Ranger?" Moxie asked from beside me.

"Yeah?"

"How's Tank gonna know what's going on?"

"Standard procedure. Cal's gone and woken him as soon as we were in the air. I left a copy of the fax on the sideboard in the hallway. He'll find it and know what's going on. If I suddenly leave and he finds a fax he knows he's in charge until I tell him otherwise. And he'll call our parents to let them know, too."

"Okay. Night, guys." With that Moxie pulled her legs under her booty, positioned her head on my thigh and within minutes she was asleep.

"What's she to you?" Tommy's voice came over my head set.

"Fiancée. Actually we were supposed to leave for our wedding and honeymoon in a little over a week."

"She got you to settle down?" Mic piped up.

"What do you consider settling down?"

"House in the suburbs, kids, dog. You know, the whole package."

"Kids and both parents doing missions doesn't mesh too good, don't you think?"

"You've got a point there," Tommy murmured.

"Uh huh. Do you know anything that wasn't said in the fax?"

"They suspect it's Cardorez you're going after."

"You serious? That's one sick son of a bitch."

"Yep. Figured the two of you were the best, so you got the job. You know how it is."

"Yeah. I'm gonna catch some shut-eye too. It's been a short night."

"Just what did you guys do that kept you up all night?"

"Got a job."

I closed my eyes, effectively ending all conversation. I'd need my sleep later and in situations like this you never knew when you'd have the next chance to sleep without risking your life doing so.

I didn't know how long I'd slept at first when Moxie stirring against me woke me up.

"Morning, Moxie."

"Don't wanna."

"Uh huh." I turned my head to kiss her. When I pulled back she smiled at me.

"You ready for action?"

"Yup. I'm gonna miss my donuts and ice cream, but I should survive."

Tommy piped up. "You let her eat sugar?"

"Moxie on sugar withdrawal would kill me."

"Don't I know it. My wife's exactly the same."

"Be careful what you tell them or you won't get any anytime soon," Moxie said from beside me.

"You know you can't go longer than a few hours without and you know it," I teased her.

"I could always cut off your balls. Gimme a sec to count how many ways I know how to do it." Her eyes were twinkling.

"Do I need to remind you that you'll regret that one?"

"I don't want to interrupt you, but we're nearing the airport where you'll have to switch to a plane," Mic said from the front of the chopper.

"You know the pilot?"

"Some young guy, have never worked with him. By the way, the two of us are supposed to pick you up once you radio in. At least that's the plan."

We fell silent again until we touched down. Moxie and I gathered our packs as well as the chutes Mic had prepared. No idea what we'd have done if he hadn't prepped them, probably landed somewhere and walked in like we'd done before too many times to count. On many occasions we didn't know if we'd be able to walk back out or not.

I was a little anxious about the mission. Sure, I'd done stuff like this numerous times before and it wasn't that I didn't trust Moxie with my back. I'd been trusting her for quite some time now, but I was a little worried how she'd hold up with only the two of us up against God knows how many enemies intend on killing us.

"How are you holding up, Moxie?" It was time to change the mind set, to get ready for the unknown.

"I'll be fine once we get started."

Before long the chopper set down on an airfield, somewhere between Trenton and Bolivia in the middle of nowhere and no sign where we were.

With a "Good luck," from Mic and Tommy we got out."

Another little puddle jumper was waiting for us, ready to bring us to the drop off zone.

We boarded the plane and within minutes we were back up in the air.

Our first parasailing experience together was fresh in my mind. It had been the last day of Steph's old life, a life where people looked down on her, laughed at her and bet on her. Starting the next day she'd started getting competent and now a little over a year after that day she was one of the most competent there was.

Settling into the plane we soon dozed off again and before we even had the necessary high Moxie was snoring lightly beside me.

According to the pilot we had another six hours to go. Between naps we used that time to go over last details.

When Moxie woke up again she looked pale and I could see a faint tremor in her hands. "You okay?" I knew she wasn't at her best at the moment.

"I'm a little nervous but I should be fine once we get started."

I pressed a light kiss against her lips, trying to reassure her as much as myself.

"We'll be fine. We're the best."

"I know, but I couldn't stand to loose you now that I've got you, Ranger."

"You need to think positive. We haven't even started yet. There's no need to worry."

"I know that, but still..."

"We'll take things as they come. There's no sense to worry about stuff we don't even know if it will happen or not."

"Uh huh. What's the plan once we get wherever we're going?"

I took a minute to plan a little more. "Depending on where we're dropped we'll walk in, then scout out the area, try to get a location. Once we know where they are we'll need to get a handle on their schedule so we know when to attack. Might take months though."

"Okay."

"There anything else you want to know?"

"Not at the moment."

We used the remaining time on the plane to be close together, holding each other and kissing. There just wasn't any way to tell when we'd get the chance again. Once in combat we just couldn't risk it. As vocal as Moxie always was during our love making, she'd alert the enemy for sure, something I wasn't willing to risk for a little intimacy. There'd be enough time for that once we got back to Trenton. Additionally, once in combat we'd have to be all business. There would be no room for Ric and Steph. It'd be a weakness that might cost us our lives. Intimacy would distract us, would make us weak and vulnerable.

Before too long the pilot told us to get ready as we were nearing our destination.

"Ready, Moxie?" The fierce determination that shone from her eyes and the set of her jaw her a sure sign of her eagerness to get started. To be honest, I couldn't wait to feel ground under my feet again.

We got suited up and I opened the door, spring-hooks were all that was holding us to the plane, keeping us safe for the moment.

"You want to go first or second?"

"First or I might never go."

"Proud of you. I trust you." I pressed a kiss to her lips, opened the hatch and then she was sailing through the air.

A few seconds later I followed her and once I opened the chute I directed it toward where Moxie was descending. Under us was the thick green roof of the jungle but I'd already spotted a small clearing. Going down there we hopefully wouldn't encounter any trees constricting us. Minutes later I touched ground only feet away from Moxie. She'd already started packing up her chute again. Because we could take them with us we wouldn't need to find a place to bury or hide them. Lonely chutes in wilderness were always suspicious so we'd have had dispose of them one way or another.

I followed her example and we met in the middle.

We were on our own now. Time to prove we were the best.

* * *

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions? Please let me know and thanks for reading.

* * *


	11. Chapter 11

_I don't own them, I don't make any money off of this and I only write for my (and hopefully your) entertainment. I promise to return the characters to the author unscathed. No copyright infringement intended._

_Thank you, Kat, for betaing for me. You did an awesome job!_

Birthday Surprises

by Katrin

Chapter 11

First thing on our list to do was to get an orientation on where we were exactly so that we could get started on mapping out the area. Sure they'd provided us with a map but we'd need to draw a much more detailed one. But before we could start doing that we'd need to know where exactly we were. It wouldn't do to walk in the wrong direction and then wonder why we never found a thing.

Next thing to do was to find a place to spend the rest of the day. We'd need to sleep now, because once it was known that foreigners were looking around we wouldn't get much sleep.

Moxie got out the map and her compass, while I tried to find some landmarks that would give us a clue. Our pilot hadn't been exactly forthcoming with information about our drop zone.

I strained to hear something that might help us and after my hearing sharpened I could hear water rushing down over rocks and gurgling around fallen down trees. Sounded like as good a place as any to start.

"Let's head down to the river. Should give us an idea which direction to go,"

"Lead on."

We made our way through the thicket, following our ears to the flowing water. The soft ground of the forest beneath our boots helped us conceal our steps and only a soft rustle of the legs of our pants rubbing was audible.

We had to walk about a mile east until we reached the river. We stayed back in the shadows as we observed, careful to avoid notice by the natives.

"Damn."

"Ranger?"

"I'm pretty sure that that's the river 'Paraiso'. Means we need to go further east to get where they want us. We'll have to cross it. Gotta wait for nightfall for that one."

She nodded and we pulled back into deeper parts of the brush that would offer us cover until we could attempt to cross the river with none being the wiser.

"What are we gonna do to pass the time?" Moxie whispered.

"Memorize the map, eat, sleep. How good are you at drawing?"

"Huh?"

"Trying to get you to draw the map as we scout out the area."

"That bad in arts?"

"Yup. Teacher wrote my mom a letter she was so overwhelmed with my abilities."

"Looks like I'm gonna do the map. But what's for lunch, dinner, whatever?"

"Ever heard of that new twigs and bark diet? It's supposed to be very healthy."

"Don't tell me I was right all the time."

"I won't tell you then."

We walked around and found a little overhang that'd give us shade while we waited. We didn't have Cal with us so we'd have to make do with what we could find. As an additional plus there a small spring that seemed clean and smelled fresh. We'd found a good place to wait.

The trees were standing pretty close to where we'd settled down, but at the same time it allowed us to spot when somebody or something was coming near us. Add to that our green camouflage and we were hidden pretty well.

We set our packs down. The weight of them was something we'd get used to pretty quick. I was just thankful we'd be able to carry the chutes along. You just never knew when they might be useful. I only hoped that Moxie would be able to carry her stuff even for long periods of time. She was carrying a lot more than she had when we went to Africa with the team. Now we had the essentials divided between only the two of us, making for significant heavier packs.

"Take a drink, sit back and relax."

I took my own advice and knelt down next to the spring. The quiet babble was music to my ears after hours of the loud roar of first the chopper and then the plane. I cupped my hands together and bent down. The cool water wet my lips before its smoothness flowing down my throat soothed the scratchiness. The water tasted good, not at all salty and very light, very refreshing in the heat they'd dropped us in.

When I'd quenched my thirst and filled up what water I'd used during the flight I looked up, only to find Moxie kneeling opposite me, mirroring my movements. I hadn't even heard her move. I knew she was good, but she'd just proven she was even better than I thought.

I realized that I was unconsciously trying to lead, trying to give guidance she didn't need. I needed to accept that and treat her like an equal, just as competent as myself. I trusted her with my life, had been doing it for some time now, but that was a new situation for us. We were on new ground and needed to figure a lot of stuff out. They knew what they were doing when they sent us on training missions back in the army. We'd just have to figure it all out as we went along and hopefully by the time we got to the real action we would be firmly in our roles.

We sat back, the packs beside us so we could grab them and run should the need arise.

Now was as good a time as any to start getting a system into our rather inaccurate map.

"You've got the map handy?"

"Uh huh. Thought we'd divide it into squares with a length of a mile each."

"Okay. You draw the net into the map and I'll go and scout out the area. Maybe I can find us something to eat that's not twigs and barks. Maybe some roots."

Moxie grinned at me. "Go, I'll be fine. Don't worry so much."

How the hell did she know that I worried about her?

"You're getting easier to read."

Huh? I was easy to read? I've been told that I had the best blank face with no emotions detectable by many people.

"I know you. And then there's ESP."

"Moxie, I give. I'll be back in two hours tops."

"I'll be fine."

I nodded and left her, although hesitant. We both needed to get used to it, but I didn't want Moxie to be alone in a country she'd never been to, had no idea how to get where. At least she'd be able to communicate. I trusted her, really, I did, but I was afraid for her. She was Moxie, tough as nails and danger to anybody who crossed her, but she was still my Babe too. The woman I loved, who I met all these years ago when she still needed my help on a regular basis. And now I was supposed to rely on her, work with her in an environment and situation few women had ever encountered before her. It was a new situation for both of us.

I started to do my job, drawing ever growing circles around where I left Moxie, taking note of every little detail. I felt my senses sharpen, slowly noticing more and more.

The low rustle of some rodents on the ground, twigs breaking and leaves rustling in their wake. A lone bird sitting in a tree, singing. Insects and butterflies humming. I noticed every flower, every plant, always on the lookout for the enemy.

The picture that nature presented me with as a whole was incredibly beautiful and colorful, but I wasn't there to enjoy nature. Rather, I was looking for signs of civilization, anything that would alert me to be even more cautious.

I couldn't find any sign of natives living like fire places in the immediate area, but I was sure we'd encounter them at one time or other during our stint in Bolivia.

I plucked some berries and collected some edible flowers and then made my way back to Moxie. It was time to get a little rest.

I approached her cautiously, but stayed in the shadows so she wouldn't see me and tried to walk as quietly as possible. Moxie was leaning against the boulder, her legs crossed underneath her.

What appeared to be the map of the area was lying in her lap and she was studying it intently. She seemed to be intent on memorizing it, seemingly unaware of her surroundings.

Suddenly she looked up, her gun unwaveringly pointed directly at me. "Show yourself."

I held up my hands as I stepped out of the shadows, not sure how she'd react.

"It's only me."

When she saw me she nodded and put down her gun.

"I know."

"How?" I was genuinely puzzled.

"Already forgot that we sense each other when we're close?"

"Didn't think of that."

"Uh-huh. Now get over here so I can show you what I found."

I walked over to sit opposite her and she spread the map on the ground between us.

"We're around here," she pointed out the river we'd cross later, "and the area we're supposed to search lies here." This time she pointed out an area about twenty miles from where we were now. With a bit of luck we could start scouting out the critical area day after tomorrow.

"What did you find?"

"The whole area is nearly as plain as a table, but there are a few springs scattered in there."

"Uh huh."

"One of them seems to be larger than the others. And it's in a smaller wood with a large clearing around. Seems like a place we should take a closer look on."

"Good job. But just to be sure we'll have to reconnoiter the whole area."

"Huh?"

"Sorry, I've been reading Hal's reports again. We'll have to scout out the whole area."

"Now you're talking. What's the plan until we can cross the river?"

"Nap."

"Fine with me. You gonna take first watch?"

"Yep. You've got two hours until I'm gonna wake you up."

Moxie looked at me while twiddling around with her hands. "How am I gonna sleep?"

"Sitting up, leaning against me. Makes for easier and noiseless waking."

"10-4."

I scooted around to her so we were sitting side by side, the rock at our back offering us cover. I put my arm around Moxie's shoulder. Before long her breathing evened out and I knew she was sleeping the sleep of the innocent. Hopefully that would still be the case when we got back. I still wasn't sure how she'd cope with everything.

She'd had to kill people before, but it was either self-defense or in a way where she didn't know her victims. I had no idea how she'd react if she had to shoot somebody to protect herself, or even worse to protect me. And it was only the two of us here. We didn't have the whole of RangeMan behind us to bail us out of trouble. If we got into trouble we'd be on our own. Only us, our abilities, out weapons, our knowledge, our training.

Moxie was mumbling something in her sleep and it reminded me of the once so vulnerable Stephanie Plum, the woman I'd learned to love, adore and cherish.

But Moxie was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, The woman I could trust with my life, my heart, my history, everything. Although the history part still needed some work.

I was tempted to think about our future, our marriage that wouldn't take place like planned, what life would hold for us. I couldn't give into the urge as I might very well get distracted and if Tommy was right and we were indeed after Cardorez being distracted would mean our certain death.

My thoughts drifted to Cardorez and my first encounter with him and his men.

_It was our first mission in the Rangers. The six of us, Tank, Lester, Bobby, Lil, me, and Ray, TK's younger brother._

_It was one of the worst missions we ever had to do. Our job was to bust Cardorez and his cartel. It had taken us months to get a handle on their schedule, to plan the assassination, to infiltrate them. It had been so easy to get slowly all of us inside, but it was a ploy. Somehow the information had leaked and they knew who we were. They were expecting us._

_Before we could even start killing them one after another we were thrown into jail cells, starvation their ultimate goal. They beat us for their amusement, raped us, had their fun with us. It was hell and just remembering it was incredibly painful._

_We got brackish, green water once a day, but nothing or little to eat. At the beginning we'd had individual cells, but after about a week we were thrown into one cell. Between beatings they chained us up and held us at gunpoint but after some time they didn't need to anymore. We were too weak to try anything anyway. Starting that day we huddled together, taking comfort in each other's presence and the sound of the others' breathing. We didn't talk much, it cost too much energy we didn't have, but staying close together kept us alive, helped us keep up the hope that we'd escape. That we'd live._

_It all was meant to weaken us, to curb us. For what we didn't know. But it hurt so much to see my comrades, my mates and friends get beaten and raped. We all were a battered mass of bruises and lacerations, broken bones scattered throughout our bodies. Every movement hurt like hell. Even breathing._

_Luckily for us we were to check in once a week, so after we'd missed three check ins they sent a team in after us. When they arrived almost two weeks later we all were in really bad shape. We were running fevers, infections having settled in. Ray was the worst. He was unconscious most of the time, his severe concussion didn't help any. Bobby was doing his best, but without his kit he didn't stand a chance._

_Ray didn't make it home again. He died on his first assignment._

_We had to watch him die. All our hopes died that day._

_When they finally got us out they had to carry us. We were too weak to walk, having lost most of our weight. Our bodies had eaten up all of our reserves to keep our hearts beating, to keep our lungs drawing in a fresh breath every few seconds._

_Seeing them load Ray onto a makeshift gurney was the worst moment in my career I ever had to live through. The finality of that action sent tremors running through my body, made goosebumps erupt on my skin. It was one of the few moments I wasn't delirious with pain and fever._

_It was a moment I'd never be able to forget._

_Unfortunately, the team getting us out concentrated on exactly that, getting us out, but they didn't complete our mission for us, so Cardorez was still living. They'd only shot who they absolutely needed to get us out. By that time Cardorez had long since crawled away into a hole and got away unscathed._

_When we finally made it back to the US we were brought to a military hospital immediately and were placed in ICU. The personnel encountered one big problem though. If separated we'd wake up shaking and screaming from nightmares. They had no choice but to improvise so we could all keep in constant contact with each other._

_We all got high dosed antibiotics via IV and drugs against all kinds of STDs as a precaution. Over time we got better, but we still couldn't stand it to be alone. Bobby was the worst. Having to watch a brother die, but being absolutely powerless to help him despite having the necessary skills distressed him to no end. His nightmares were so bad that he didn't want to sleep at all to escape them. In the end they had to sedate him so his body could heal._

_Physically we all healed. Mentally was a whole different matter though. Months of counseling finally helped us to accept what happened, helped us deal and live with it._

_Waiting for the HIV-testing was a trying time for us all. Not knowing if our captors had infected us was nerve wracking. Thankfully the tests for HIV as well as for various other infectious diseases came back negative for all of us. Probably because all of our shots were up to date and we got incredibly lucky. I didn't know how we'd have reacted if we'd gotten infected, how and if we'd been able to cope. We'd probably have gone insane, lost our minds sooner rather than later._

_I was in my zone now, trying to force away the sadness that threatened to overwhelm me. I still hadn't forgiven myself for it. It was my fault we'd gotten caught in the first place. I'd led the team, but I'd failed. I'd failed a brother and a friend. My boldness, my sauciness had gotten him killed._

_That was something I'd never be able to forgive myself for. It was my fault Ray had died so young and without reason. TK had long ago forgiven, maybe never even really blamed me. He'd talked things through with me and it had helped. But it was a burden I'd have to carry with me until the day I died._

"What's got you so tense?" Moxie's voice startled me out of my reverie.

"Huh?"

"You're all tense. I could feel your muscles strain under my cheek."

"I'm sorry," I admitted sheepishly.

"Don't be. It was time for me to wake up anyway. Wanna talk about it?"

"Not now." Talking about it at that point might only scare her. If you're scared you're frozen up. Not something we needed at the moment.

"Okay. Why don't you take your nap now?"

"Right."

Moxie sat up and I leaned against her, but she moved around until my head was resting in her lap.

"Sleep. I'll watch over you."

She ran her fingers through my hair, massaging the sensitive skin of my head and neck. I fell asleep to her gentle ministrations on my scalp.

When I woke some time later it was to Moxie's nudges to my back. I was instantly awake.

"There's movement ahead," she whispered barely audible.

"Where?"

"03:00." That was a technique all soldiers used. It was founded on the person being the center of the clock and the direction straight ahead was 12:00. The time gave the direction. It was especially useful when you didn't know where north was, but you had to be careful that you were both looking in the same direction. Beside that it was a great way to orient yourselves.

"Stay put."

As quietly as possible I got up to find out what she's heard.

I strained my hearing, trying to catch the noise my partner had heard. I wasn't sure how well Moxie could distinguish what exactly she was hearing, but over the course of our mission she'd perfect this skill one way or other.

I went ahead when I caught a soft whisking sound. That confirmed my suspicions. She'd heard a bird. A harmless thing, but if you couldn't place the sound it was always a reason to worry. And better safe than sorry.

I made my way back to Moxie who awaited me with her gun pointing at me. Her tense body relaxed slightly when she recognized me, but she didn't let her guard down entirely.

"You heard a bird."

She nodded, the relief taking over her features.

The sun had already started to set and the sky was turning a beautiful shade of pink with orange and purple stripes thrown in. The shadows had started to get longer for some time now and it wouldn't be much longer until it'd be dark enough for us to continue our trip.

We ate what nature offered us, though I figured I'd hold back on the crawly things for another few days so Moxie wouldn't have my balls before the mission even started.

* * *

Thanks for reading. Kat

Only one more exam this term. After that I should find the time to finally write more, promise.


End file.
